Cold Legends
by Epicnick101
Summary: All his life Nickar Storm-Bane has never really felt as if he belonged, but that will all change when a prophecy set in stone is laid out before him and he finds out that the fate of Nirn rests in his hands. With some help from the voice and his friends, Nickar will take the fight to the Aldermari Dominion, Alduin, and assume the mantle of Dragonborn and the hero of the Era.
1. Chapter 1

**The Story of the Dragonborn**

Chapter 1: Quite A Welcome Home

Through the cold early morning weather of Skyrim rode two horse-drawn carriages. It was an Imperial convoy on its way to the town of Helgen, and in the passenger seats of each carriage were prisoners. All of their hands were bonded and they just sat waiting to see where their fate would take them. Leading the convoy were two Imperial soldiers on horseback followed by a carriage with an Imperial at the reins with four prisoners in the cargo area, they were all soldiers for the Stormcloak rebellion. Behind that carriage was another with four prisoners, though with more of a variety of people. First was another Stormcloak soldier in his lightly armored blue and bronze uniform. He had long blond hair with a slight beard. To his left was a thief who had gotten mixed up in the Stormcloak and Imperial skirmish and had been taken prisoner in the process; he had dark hair that curved toward the back of his head, a shaved face, and was dressed in rags. Across from him was a man with not only his hands bound but his mouth held shut with a cloth, unlike the others he was dressed in finer clothes made of a dark fur, he had long brown hair that went to his back and slightly on his shoulders his brown beard went around his mouth. Finally to his left was a man with light brown hair which was short compared to the others' hair; his face was shaved yet he had a bit of peach fuzz on his face. He like the thief was dressed in rags. One thing he and all the prisoners had in common was they were all Nords, the species of men that rule Skyrim. However unlike most Nords who have a large muscular build, this man was rather small he looked to be about five feet and nine inches tall, but he was not shrimpy. He just had more of a strong wiry build. This prisoner however was asleep and had been for the past few hours. Soon he woke up and his brownish-green eyes scanned around him. After a few moments of silence the soldier began to talk to him, "Hey you your finally awake, you were trying to cross the border right?" The prisoner looked up at the soldier and quietly just said "yeah", the soldier went on saying "Same as my comrades and that thief over there." The thief, talking for the first time said, "Damn you Stormcloaks, Skyrim was fine until you came along empire was nice and lazy, if it wasn't for you I could have stolen that horse and made it to Hammarfell." The soldier just calmly responded, "We're all brothers and sisters in bonds now thief." The thief quickly turned to face the prisoner in front of him and asked, "What's wrong with him huh?" The soldier quickly responded and said angrily, "Watch your tongue, your speaking to Ullffric Stormcloak the true high king of Skyrim!" The man next to Ulfric just looked over surprised, the thief started to say fearfully, "Ulfric, the jarl of Windhelm, but if they captured you than that means…Oh gods where are they taking us?!" The thief and his voice now seemed to be full of panic, but then again he was a thief courage was not something he lived up to. After sitting quietly for a while, the soldier asked "Hey what village are you from horse thief?" "Why do you care?" responded the thief. "A Nord's last thoughts should be of home." said the soldier. After being quiet for a moment the thief said, "Rorikstead, I'm from Rorikstead." The soldier then looked to the man across from him and asked "What about you, what's your name, what hold are you from?" The man quickly responded, "Nickar Storm-Bane and I don't know, I was raised in Hammarfell by some Redguard warriors, along with some other children. They said they found me as a baby getting taken away by some Dominion soldiers. They assumed my family was dead so they took me in and raised me. That's actually why I came here, to find some leads to whom and where I come from."

The soldier just eyed Nickar for a bit before saying, "Ralof, I'm from Riverwood, it's good to see a kinsman come back to his home every now and then. With this war going on people think of Skyrim as some plain of Oblivion." "Well honestly I can't say I feel too differently" said Nickar. "I mean I take the road from Cyrodill, head to Dark Water Crossing for some rest, and next thing I know I'm being called rebel and told to stand down. Now I'm here being taken to Gods know where." After he said this Nickar noticed he sounded rather angry and impatient, and he was, but the old Redguard warrior that taught him the ways of combat and restoration magic had told him to 'Always have patience, for if there is none the heat of battle will break you every time.' "It seems we have reached our destination", said Ralof. The thief suddenly looked to the stone wall and wooden gate that was starting to open and said, "No this isn't happening this isn't happening! Shor, Mara, Dibella, Kynerith, Akatosh, Divines please help me! While the thief once again started to panic both the carriages passed into the town wall, and Nickar and Ralof looked over to an Imperial man on a horse, and across from him on another horse was a high elf of the Aldermeri Dominion in robes and to both her sides Domoinion or Thalmore soldiers in shining gold elven armor. "Look at him, General Tulius the military governor, and it looks like the Thalmore are with them. Damn elves, I bet they had something to do with this." said Ralof with complete disgust. Nero also began to feel anger, for he had suspected that the Thalmore killed his parents and then taken him away since the Alikeer warriors found him after they had killed the Thalmore soldiers.

Ralof soon continued, "This is Helgen, I used to be sweet on a girl from here. I wonder if Vilod is still making that mead with juniper berries mixed in. Funny, when I was a boy Imperial walls and towers used to make me feel so safe." As the carriages passed a few houses a boy was heard asking his father, "Who are they daddy, where are they going?" "You need to go inside now little cub." said the father. "Why?" asked the boy "I want to watch the soldiers." The father then slightly raised his voice. "Inside the house, now!" "Yes Papa." said the boy who then stood up and walked back into his home. Nickar looked around and suddenly he started to feel fear, it was a chopping block. "Get these prisoners off the carriages, move!" ordered an Imperial officer. This officer was an Imperial woman wearing heavy Imperial armor and an officer helmet. Once again the thief spoke, "Why are we stopping?" "Why do you think, end of the line", answered Ralof who then turned to Nickar. "Let's go, shouldn't keep the Gods waiting for us." Once their carriage had come to a complete stop the four started to get off the carriage. "No we're not rebels you can't do this!" screamed the thief. Ralof scoffed, "Face your death with some courage thief." The thief just continued, "You have to tell them we weren't with you this is a mistake!"

"Step towards the block when we call you, one at a time!" ordered the Imperial officer. As Ralof jumped off the carriage after nicker he muttered, "Empire loves their damn lists." Nickar looked over to his left he could see the rest of the Stormcloak soldiers just like his group being accounted for. Soon an Imperial soldier standing next to the officer began to examine the lists; the soldier had a strong buff build, fair skin like Nickar, and brown hair that somewhat matched the thief's hair. He began to go through the list, "Ulfric Stormcloak, jarl of Windelm." As the jarl and leader of the rebellion walked towards the block Ralof said, "It has been an honor jarl Ulfric." The soldier continued, "Ralof of Riverwood.", Ralof made his way to the block, "Loquir of Rorikstead." Nickar thought and realized that Loquir was the thief's name, since of course besides himself he was the only one left. The thief once again cowered, "No, I'm not a rebel you can't do this!" He then ran away past the officer and soldier. "Halt" screamed the officer. "You're not gonna kill me" he yelled back." "Archers!" At the Imperial officer's word two soldiers raised their bows, knocked an arrow, and shot. The thief had only made it a couple yards before he was impaled with the two arrows and fell dead to the ground. The officer turned back to the prisoners, "Anyone else feel like running?" The soldier holding the list then looked up to Nickar, "You there step forward." Nickar did as he was told. "Who are you?" asked the soldier. "Nickar Storm-Bane and I'm just a traveler, this is some sort of mistake." The soldier frowned, "You picked a bad time to come home to Skyrim Kinsman." He looked to the officer, "Captain what should we do he's not on the list?" The captain barely thought about it before she made her decision, "Forget the list, he goes to the block." Nickar was shocked by this, at how an injustice like this was even tolerated. The soldier had a look that said he didn't agree, but didn't put it to light. "By your orders Captain." He then turned to a frightened Nickar, "I'm sorry, at least you'll die here in your homeland." Nickar then turned furious, "If I'm not on the list and completely innocent how can you execute me!" The soldier just gave Nickar a sorry look, "Follow the captain prisoner nice and easy." The captain walked away, and while Nickar was in a state of despair he followed her, knowing he had to find inner peace to look for a way out of this situation. As he rejoined Ralof with the rest of the prisoners he saw Ulfric Stormcloak and standing right in front of him was General Tulius. The general then began to speak. "Ulfric Stormcloak, there are many here in Helgen that call you a hero. But a hero doesn't use a power like the voice to murder his king and usurp his throne." A muffled groan could be heard from Ulfric's covered moth. The general then continued, "You started this war and plunged Skyrim into chaos. Now the Empire is going to put you down and restore the peace!" The general's word became more heated as he spoke. After a moment of silence a high eerie sound that sounded somewhat like a roar was heard. "What is that?" asked a soldier. "It's nothing; carry on." answered the general." "Yes, General Tulius", answered the captain who then turned to a female priest who whore tan colored robes and a hood. "Give them there last rights." After just standing there for a moments the priest raised her arms and began. "As we commend your souls to Atherious blessings of the eight Divines upon you…" "For the love of Talos shut up and let's get this over with." One of the Stormcloak soldiers must have had enough of this because as he interrupted the rights he had walked right up to the priest, the headsman, and the chopping post. The priest didn't argue, "As you wish." After a brief silence the soldier once again spoke up. "Come on I haven't got all morning." The Imperial captain then walked up behind the rebel, put her foot against his back and leaned him against the chopping post with his head above the basket that would soon be loaded with heads. As the headsmen began to raise his axe the soldier spoke out one more time. "My ancestors are smiling at me Imperials, can you say the same." With that the headsmen swung down with his axe completely decapitating the prisoner's head letting it fall into the wooden basket. Ralof spoke, "As fearless in death as he was in life." The captain then looked to the group of prisoners and then to Nickar. "Next the Nord in the rags!" ordered the captain. Though after that, the same eerie roaring sound was heard. The same soldier who had asked about it earlier did not let this slide. "There it is again." The captain just ignored him, "I said next prisoner." To the block prisoner nice and easy." said the soldier.

Nickar froze realizing he was out of time and his death was imminent, but when he wouldn't move he found himself being pushed to the post by two other Imperial soldiers and was brought to his knees. He then felt the captain put her armored boot on to his back and lean him onto the post ready to be executed. Nickar looked to his left to look at the headsmen preparing to chop off the next head, his head. Suddenly a roar could be heard, this one much louder, deeper, and clearer; but Nickar could not only hear it, he could see it. Behind the headsman, behind the stone tower, and from behind some near mountains flew a black monster of some sort. However Nickar was not the only one who could see it because as it flew closer the general was heard yelling, "What in oblivion is that?!" Then the captain spoke and asked, "Sentries, what do you see?" The only person that Nickar could see who wasn't taking notice was the headsmen whose axe was raised, but that problem quickly solved itself when the huge black winged monster with red eyes landed on top of the stone tower forcing the headmen to fall over. Once it had landed everyone panicked.

"Dragon!"

"Gods No!"

"Everyone Get Back!"

Though there was nothing keeping Nickar leaning on the post he was frozen from shock at the scene that was playing out before him. The black monster opened its mouth and made some sort of shouting noise which darkened the sky and made the clouds quickly spiral. Then almost instantly balls of fire came from the sky smashing into stone and setting fire to wood and straw. Nickar heard the general or somebody yell, "Guards get the town's people to safety!" The dragon then made another shouting sound that had a sort of thundering boom to it. Nickar found that this blurred his vision, and he tumbled to the ground shielding his eyes. He lay there until he heard a voice. "Hey you, hey kinsman get up!" Nickar looked up to find Ralof who had gotten his hands free and was standing above him reaching one out to him. "Come on the Gods won't give us another chance, this way!" Taking Ralof's hand Nickar stood up and ran after him into another stone tower. Nickar, like everyone else was in a panic, but when he entered the tower and the door was slammed shut behind him he began to have a feeling, a feeling that this chaotic scene would only be the beginning of something that was so much more.


	2. Chapter 2-Daring Escape

Chapter 2-Daring Escape

Nickar and Ralof had just entered the stone tower and closed the wooden door behind them. After taking in everything that was going on Nickar found he and Ralof were not alone, in fact right in front of him stood Ulfric Stormcloak, like Ralof the jarl had gotten his hands free, and also, the cloth covering his mouth was gone. Nickar then looked behind him to find two Stormcloak soldiers one was injured and lying on the floor, the other was tending to his wounds. He was going to ask if anyone could help him get the bindings off his hands, but before he could Ralof began to speak to his leader. "Jarl Ulfric what is that thing, can legends be true?!" The jarl paused for a moment but then said in an almost calm voice, "Legends do not burn down villages." He then continued his voice much louder this time, "We need to move now!" Ralof then turned to Nickar, "Go up the stairs, come on hurry!" Nickar did as he was told and climbed the spiraling staircase but as he neared the top he saw at least three Imperial legion soldiers standing there. The soldiers looked at him and Ralof behind him, but before anyone could do anything, stone from the wall of the tower burst open hitting the legion soldiers with bone breaking force, while Nickar and Ralof fell backward onto the hard stone steps. At the gaping hole where a wall used to be was the head of the black sinister monster, as if the flying stone hadn't killed the soldiers the monster breathed fire into the top of the tower and then flew off. Nickar had gotten up soon enough to see what had just happened and stared out of the hole in the tower's wall, the town was in chaos, houses burned, streets burned, people burned. Ralof came up behind him and pointed to a burning building that used to be the inn, there was a hole in the roof. "Go jump", he shouted, "Don't worry we will follow when we can!" With a helpful push from Ralof Nickar jumped into the burning inn but burned his foot somewhere along the way, he swore but then got up happy to see there was another hole in the side of the inn he could use to escape.

His foot hurt but he kept running but stopped to see a familiar face. It was the soldier who was looking over the list at the chopping block, he had his sword drawn and was starting toward a child that looked as if he was about ten to eleven years old. The soldier then yelled over to the child, "Heming you need to get over here now!" As the boy did this the soldier yelled, "Outta boy you're doing great". Once the boy had reached him the blacked wing monster landed a few yards in front of the two. "Torulf" he yelled as threw the boy and himself to the ground behind a burning house; Nickar did the same thing as the winged beast once again breathed fire that was as hot and hellish as an Oblivion gate. One monster once again flew off and above the town. As Nickar, the soldier, the boy, and another got up, the soldier looked to Nickar and said, "Still alive prisoner, stay close to me if you want to stay that way." He then turned to the other man, "Gunnar, take care of the boy, I need to find General Tulius and join the defense!" Gunnar nodded, "Gods guide you Hadvar", he said with a raspy voice. Nickar thought for a second, "Hadvar, so that's his name." Hadvar ran off but as he did screamed, "With me prisoner stay close!" Nickar followed him and they reached a line of burning houses on the right and a stone wall on the left. Hadvar must have taken good notice of this because he then yelled, "Stay close to the wall!" Both did this but when they reached a turn to the right the black creature landed on the stone wall directly above them. Both just froze as the terrifying monster above them breathed out more fire at something that must have been a ways ahead of them, but once again it flew off. The two men then continued ahead and ran through some burning houses where the straw roofs were completely burned away. Nickar swore as one of the flaming pieces of rock from the sky landed right next to him. Hadvar and Nickar then made it out into the open to find some both scared and irritated soldiers. They yelled "What in oblivion is this thing?!" and "How much does it take to kill this beast?!"

Hadvar looked over and saw the general with a few other legion soldiers and yelled over to him, "General!" "Hadvar into the keep soldier we're leaving!" With that Hadvar turned and ran, "It's you and me prisoner, stay close!" The two had just run under a stone bridge when they bumped into a familiar face. Nickar recognized him immediately, it was Ralof, but unlike last time he saw him he was now armed with an iron axe in his right hand. Nickar was glad to see he was alive, Hadvar, not so much. "Ralof you damn traitor, out of my way!" Ralof quickly responded, "We're escaping Hadvar, you're not stopping us this time!" Hadvar must have not been in the mood to fight with Ralof because he then said, "Fine, I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovnguard!" Before running off toward the keep he signaled for Nickar to follow him, while Ralof ran to a door that looked like another entrance to the keep. Once he was at the door he yelled over to Nickar, "Hey kinsman come on this way!" Nickar found that he had a choice to make; he could follow Hadvar, the legion soldier, or Ralof, the Stormcloak soldier. After a few seconds of thinking and the constant pressure from the dragon flying above, Nickar decided to follow Ralof into his entrance of the keep considering that only a few minutes ago Hadvar's friends had tried to cut off his head for a crime he hadn't committed.

Once the two were inside the keep they walked into the circular room with a closed gate on the left and right, up ahead of them was a table with an iron dagger sitting on it. Sadly to the table's left was a dead Stormcloak soldier. Nickar guessed that Ralof must have known him because he crouched by the body laying a hand on its head. "We'll meet again in Sovnguard brother." He then turned to Nickar, "That thing is a dragon no doubt." "A dragon?" Nickar asked with a confused look. Ralof nodded, "Yes just like the children's stories and the legends… the harbingers of the end times." Nickar embarrassed, said "Sorry I don't know much about that." "Well I'll be sure to tell you all about it once we get out of here." said Ralof. He then picked up the iron dagger from the table, "Come here let's see if we can get those bindings off." Nickar walked over to him, and with a quick cut the bindings were gone; it felt good to be able to move his hands around. Ralof then instructed him to take his dead friend's axe and put on his armor if he could. While Nickar did this Ralof turned around to open the gate, it was locked, 'surprise' he thought. While Nickar was finishing putting on the Stormcloak armor Ralof ran to the other gate. "Damn this one's locked too." Nickar had just finished putting on the armor when he and Ralof heard voices approaching. "Come on soldier, move!" ordered a woman. Ralof, after seeing where the voices had come from gestured to Nickar to hide. There were two Imperials coming, one a soldier, the other the captain who was managing the execution. "Get this gate open now!" ordered the captain. As the two made it to the gate and began to unlock it, they were completely unaware that Nickar and Ralof were hiding on both sides of the door way. Looking across Nickar could see Ralof with his weapons ready. In his right hand he held the iron axe; in his left he held an iron dagger. Nickar hefted his axe ready to strike. Once the gate opened the soldier was the first to walk through, to whom Ralof jumped out at smashing his axe into the soldier's right shoulder forcing him to drop his sword, while at the same time he drove his dagger into the soldier's stomach killing him. While this was going on the Imperial captain had managed to slip by Ralof. She didn't get far before Nickar swung his axe into her side, but her heavy armor absorbed most of the blow. She then slashed at her adversary with her sword which Nickar barely dodged before he swung at her again with his axe which was deflected by her sword. Nickar stepped back putting some distance between her and the woman. She then charged, only this time Nickar was ready. With a crafty step to the left he evaded his enemy's attack. The captain's heavy armor made it difficult for her to stop; Nickar seized the opportunity to swing out with his axe knocking the captain over and her helmet off. While she was down Nickar swung his axe onto her back head killing her instantly. As blood began flow from her head onto the stone floor Nickar stood up, happy that the bitch was dead.

While Nickar looked at his good work, Ralof walked over to the corpse and began to search the pockets. Once he was done he stood up and held a key. "This key should open that gate over there." He walked to the unopened gate and unlocked it. Nickar knelt down and picked up the captain's sword. He then heard Ralof say, "Come on let's get out of here before the dragon brings the whole tower down on our heads." Before he could walk away Nickar threw him his axe. Ralof caught it and then looked at him. "You'd probably have more use for that than me, I'm more of a sword person." said Nickar placing his new sword into the sheath on his belt. The two then ran down some spiraling stairs that Nickar guessed would take them to the underground part of the keep. They had just reached the bottom of the stairs when they saw another passageway, but before they could start down it there was a rumbling sound and some debris fell, blocking the way. "Damn that dragon doesn't give up easy." said Ralof. They then turned to their left to find a wooden door, which they opened and walked into a new room. They then took notice of three more legion soldiers, and by the look of it they seemed to be gathering potions. As Nickar and Ralof furthered into the room with their weapons drawn they were quickly noticed. Ralof threw the axe in his left hand which buried itself into the chest of a soldier, crumpling him to the ground. Nickar charged one of the legion soldiers and stabbed him before he had the chance to draw his sword. The final soldier drew his sword as Nickar let the body slide of his sword leaving a bloody smear on it. The soldier was going for Nickar but was forced to go on the defensive when Ralof slashed with his axe cutting at his arm. Nickar slashed his sword at the soldier's feet knocking him over, giving Ralof the chance to bury his axe into the soldier's head. After taking a few seconds to catch their breath Ralof walked over to another body to get the axe he had thrown out of its chest. "Let's get some potions before we move on." he said as he sheathed his axes.

Walking over to a table Nickar found bottles of potions for healing, stamina increase, magika increase, and a satchel to carry it all in. As he loaded it all up he thought to himself about the last two fights he had been in. He had never been the most coordinated warrior when he trained in Hammarfell even though he had practically trained his whole life, but he had actually handled himself pretty well these last two times. 'I guess all that training and hard work is finally paying off.' he thought to himself. Once he had finished packing all the potions, he slung the satchel over his shoulder and signaled to Ralof that they were ready to move. Ralof opened a wooden door which led to a downward staircase; after hesitating for a few seconds the two started down. Once at the bottom Nickar looked around, and then Ralof's voice spoke the same thing he was thinking. "Trolls blood, It's a torture chamber." Looking around the room made this statement obvious, there were two cages hanging from the ceiling on the left side of the room. In the first one was a skeleton that could have been there for Gods know how long, and in the another cage was a body that had just recently died. To the right of the room was a table with weapons of all kinds of torture on it, and some torture devices that were stained with blood. As the men continued on they heard some fighting ahead of them, and they both drew their weapons rushing down some more steps that would take them further down into the dungeon.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, they found the source of the sounds of fighting. There were two Imperial soldiers both wearing there lightly armored uniforms, one carrying a large two handed axe, and the other a sword in his right hand and in his left a large triangular shaped shield. They were currently in a fight with two Stormcloak soldiers, one man and a woman who were both wielding large war hammers. By the look of things it seemed the Imperials were winning, for they had broken the Stormcloaks' formation, and the male soldier looked like he was bleeding pretty badly. Without hesitation Nickar and Ralof charged into the fray. Ralof, with his dual wielding axes was able to overwhelm the soldier using the slow wielding battle axe. At the same time nicker stabbed at the other soldier with his sword, but it just bounced harmlessly off the shield. The Imperial then slashed with his own sword which Nickar parried with his. The female Stormcloak soldier took this opportunity to swing her hammer into the enemy's leg which then crumpled soldier. To finish the Stormcloak shattered the Imperials spine by slamming down with her war hammer, while Nickar looked over to see Ralof decapitating his foe. Once the fighting was over Nickar walked over to the injured Stormcloak soldier and used his restoration magic to heal him and gave him a small healing potion just for good measure. While Nickar did this, Ralof began to talk to the female soldier who was sheathing her large war hammer. "Was Jarl Ulfric with you?" he asked. The soldier then responded in a slightly worried tone, "No we haven't seen him since the block." Ralof seeing the woman was worried placed a hand on her and said, "It's alright if anyone can make it out of this it's Ulfric." Nickar, after healing the wounded soldier walked over with him to the rest of the group. "Come on we can stand around when we're out of this hellhole." he said. Nickar almost immediately regretted saying that; he didn't want to come across as pushy. He was relieved when Ralof nodded and agreed, "Yes you're right, let's move on." The group now stronger in numbers began further into the deepening keep.

As the group walked down a narrow hallway, Nickar could see that the woman had a burn on her leg. 'Probably from the dragon attack', he thought. As they reached the end of the hallway some voices of some more Imperials could be heard. "Our orders are to wait until General Tulius arrives." said a legionnaire in heavy Imperial armor. The soldier however didn't seem to be convinced by this. "I'm not waiting to be killed by a dragon!" he exclaimed. "We just need to wait a little longer, the general will pull through." Nickar, Ralof, and the two soldiers hid at the doorway leading into the room. The room was large; outside of the doorway was a stone walkway. To the right of the walkway was a stone bridge that led to the rest of the walkway which made three fourths of the outline of the room. In the center of the room was a waterway. The group didn't wait long before the female soldier charged into the room smashing the sharp side of her war hammer into the first Imperial soldier she saw. Though after this, she was almost immediately struck with an arrow that went straight into her throat. "No, damn you!" screamed Ralof as the rest charged forward. A legionnaire and a soldier crossed over the bridge, weapons at the ready to fight the enemy, while at the side of the room the archer that had killed the woman was knocking another arrow. Ralof meeting the enemy swung both his axes at the legionnaire which were deflected away by his foes sword. The soldier stabbed at Nickar with his sword which he sidestepped and then drove his own sword into the soldier's heart. The Stormcloak with the war hammer swung at the legionnaire who at this point was pushing Ralof back. The legionnaire dodged the swing and then thrust his sword into the Stormcloak's chest. Nickar used this moment to strike the legionnaire in the head with his sword knocking him over the railing into the water below. Nickar suddenly felt something whiz past his head, realizing it was an arrow he threw himself to the ground for cover. Ralof however, full of anger and hate for the death of two of his comrades threw his axe across the large room. It buried itself in the Imperial archer's chest, but not before an arrow from the archer shot right into Ralof's knee.

Ralof bent down on one knee and clutched the other in pain. Nickar, realizing his friend was hurt, sheathed his sword and lit his hands with the golden glow of restoration magic. After healing for a few seconds, Nickar realized that as long as that arrow was in his knee healing it wouldn't do much good. He then stopped and looked at Ralof, "I need to take that arrow out before I can heal the wound, it'll hurt." Ralof nodded, and then groaned in pain as Nickar pulled out the arrow as carefully as he could. After it was out, Nickar healed Ralof's knee to the point where he could stand up and walk again, but he would still need some help with the wound later. Ralof thanked Nickar and then scoffed, "Imperial bastards!" "I'm sorry about your friends." said Nickar as they left the room. Ralof just nodded before limping over to a lever and pulling it, which brought down a large wooden down bridge. Once they crossed it they found that they were now in a cave or cavern of some sort. Running down the middle of the cavern was a small stream. Both followed the stream before from behind Nickar, Ralof whispered, "Bear! Get down!" Once they were both in a crouching position Ralof pointed to the bear so Nickar could see. After looking for a while he finally saw it; it was lying on its belly with its backed turned to them on the other side of the stream. "With this knee I'd rather not tango with that thing right now, I think we should sneak passed it.", Ralof whispered. Nickar nodded in agreement and the two carefully snuck their way past the bear, never leaving their crouched positions. They were almost past it when the bear raised its head to look around for a moment. Both just froze in place, neither moving a muscle. To both of their great joy the bear once again lowered its head back into rest, and the men made it past the bear. After they had turned a corner of the cave, Ralof said almost enthusiastically, "Woo that was a close one!" Nickar just chuckled before looking ahead and seeing light. Ralof saw it too and smiled, and with a laugh he said, "A way out, I knew we'd make it!" The two ran through the exit of the cave and into the mid-day sun, both happy that they would live to fight another day.

Author's Notes: I should have done this for the first chapter but it slipped my mind. Anyway, _The Story of The Dragonborn_ will be a story centered on Nickar Storm-Bane (Dragonborn/Dovakiin) and his friends and allies. This first book will include the main storyline, the Companions quest line, and a few other fun side quests. If this becomes successful enough, book two will be based on Dawnguard. Anyway be sure to read, review, point out any grammar mistakes, and please if you have any suggestions please message me. The Elder Scrolls and Skyrim belong to Bethesda. The only thing that is mine is this story itself and whatever didn't happen in the Elder Scrolls game Skyrim.

Characters: This will explain or remind you of important characters and who they are.

Nickar Storm-Bane- The Dragonborn of this story. He is a 25 year old Nord male that was raised in Hammarfell and was recruited into a warrior recruitment project called Vanguard. The Vanguards were developed during the Great War, the war between the Empire and the Aldermarie Dominion to fight the Thalmore. Nickar started training when he was 7 years old. Unlike most Nords, Nickar has a leaner more skinny build, but is still wiry and strong. As for his personality, he is overall a good guy and full of morale and empathy and his heart is pure, yet all of the brutal childhood training left him somewhat broken.

Ralof- Stormcloak soldier, one of the first companions in the game.

Hadvar- Imperial soldier, the other first companion as opposed to Ralof.

Ulfric Stormcloak- The Jarl of Windhelm, also know as the city of Ysgramor. He is leader of the rebellion in Skyrim. He killed High King Toryyg with the ancient power of the voice to send a message to the people of Skyrim. If the High King of Skyrim couldn't defend himself, how could he defend Skyrim? As to why this civil war is being fought and how it is connected to the Great War, will be discussed later.

General Tulius- The Imperial military governor in Skyrim. He leads the legion in Skyrim and is tasked with quelling the Stormcloak Rebellion.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3-The Road to Riverwood

Nickar loved the sunlight. In Hammarfell, where he had been raised the sun never gave the Redguard people a break. He remembered having to take long runs across the dessert for training when he was being taught the skills of a warrior. During those days of training, Nickar hated the sun and the heat most of all. He didn't learn to love it until he and some other children in training were left in a large underground cavern for a full week. Nickar remembered how hard that week was, looking for food, keeping a torch with him at all times so that none of the foul underground creatures would attack him. The five boys who went in with Nickar never expected Nickar, the smallest of the children to survive that part or any of the training. However he came out of the cave almost completely unscathed while the other boys came out with their minds hardly intact. Nickar may have had trouble, but he was one of the toughest of the children. After being in the dark so long Nickar promised himself that he would always welcome the warmth of the sun, as he was doing now.

Nickar and Ralof exited the cave to be welcomed by the warmth of the mid-day sun. Nickar took this moment to look around his cold but beautiful homeland. Since they were more in the southern portion of Skyrim, it was cold but there was only a little snow on the ground and in the trees. The sky was a light blue color with angel white clouds which lined all the way to the mountainside. 'I'm home.' Nickar thought to himself before a broad winged shadow flew across the ground. Nickar and Ralof watched as the big black dragon flew above them, past a mountain, and away to somewhere else in Skyrim. "Looks like he's gone for good this time." said Ralof as the two began to walk down a path to the main road. "Yeah you said you were going to tell me more about that dragon when we got out, and it looks like were out." said Nickar. "Yeah well actually, I think it's best we get a move on first, this place will be swarming with Imperials soon enough." Ralof then continued, "My sister, Gerdur runs the saw mill in Riverwood. I'm sure she'd be glad to let us stay at her place for a while, and you know, fix my knee up." Nickar had forgotten about his knee, but then answered, "Yeah I'll come. Thanks."

With that, the two companions started down the road to Riverwood. Ralof told Nickar some basic history, like how dragons were supposed to only be a legend and how they apparently hadn't been seen since the first era. It was now the fourth era. Ralof had also brought up the idea that Nickar return with him to Windhelm to join up with the Stormcloaks. Nickar, not really knowing if he should, just told Ralof that he would have to think about it. He, of course had reasons to. He believed in and worshipped Talos, he was a Nord and he wanted to see Skyrim's people free to worship whoever they wanted, and he wanted to make the Thalmore pay for everything they had done. However Nickar also thought and believed that for these things to be accomplished, the Empire, and Tamriel had to remain united. Both then expressed their thoughts on the White Gold Concordat. They both agreed that surrendering the freedom of Skyrim and the rest of Tamriel to the elves of the Aldermarie Dominion at the tip of an elven sword was a cowardly move by the emperor, but the difference was Nickar still had some faithfulness to the empire while Ralof seemed to have little or none. They were almost to Riverwood when Ralof stopped Nickar and pointed at something. Nickar looked to where Ralof was pointing and found three large altar stones. "The guardian stones." said Ralof, "You can accept a blessing from one of these stones, the thief stone, the mage stone, or the warrior stone." Nickar just stood in looking puzzled before he spoke up. "If I accept a blessing from one of these stones, what will happen?" "Whatever path you choose, the stone will give you great fortune along the path it represents." replied Ralof. "Well go on, choose your blessing." Nickar walked to the center of the alter, to his left was the thief stone, to his front the mage stone, and to his right was the warrior stone. Nickar knelt down in front of the warrior stone and placed his hands on it. He swore he felt some kind of energy coming from the stone to him. Ralof, who was watching him said, "The warrior stone good, that's an honorable path friend." Nickar then walked back over to Ralof, and noticed that he felt much stronger and well, less of a spazz. Ralof giving Nickar a pat on the back started back on the road to Riverwood, Nickar followed.

"You know, I'm glad you decided to come with me, we're almost to Riverwood." said Ralof. Were you born and raised there." asked Nickar. "Yes, I was, I joined the Stormcloaks when I was 31 years old. That was two years ago. What about you?' "What about me?" asked Nickar. "How old are you? I mean, you look pretty young." said Ralof. "Oh, I'm 25 years old." answered Nickar. Ralof just walked ahead down the road for a bit before asking another question. "You said you had trained as a warrior in Hammarfell?" "Yeah, mostly Dragonstar." "I see, well you handle yourself well. The Stormcloak army would be lucky to have you. Nickar blushed a bit, and it showed well on his fair, nearly pale skin. "Thanks, I'll consider."

They walked a minutes longer before Riverwood's gates were in view. Ralof stopped Nickar, "Ok we're here, we should be ahead of the news of Helgen. But if we run into any Imperials just let me do the talking, alright." Nickar nodded and then followed Ralof into the gates. While following Ralof, Nickar looked around at the small and peaceful town. Like Helgen, a lot of the houses were made of wood and straw. 'A perfect target for that dragon', thought Nickar. He also noticed that there seemed to be no military presence at all. In fact he didn't even see any guards. He looked to his right to listen to a conversation between an old women and maybe her son. "Dragon, I saw a dragon!" exclaimed the old women. Her supposed son didn't seem to take this statement very seriously. "What are you going on about now mother." A dragon, a big black one, it flew over the mountain, over the barrow." The son didn't seem convinced, "Mother please, just keep quiet. I've got better things to do than listen to your fantasies." With that he walked off, but not before his old mother yelled at him once more. "You'll see, it was a dragon, it'll come kill us all and then you'll believe me!" This disgusted Nickar, he had half a mind to slap the son over the head and tell him to give his elder and mother a little more respect, even though dragons were supposed to be a legend. Though before he could do anything, he felt Ralof's hand on his shoulder guiding him across a wooden boardwalk to the saw mill.

After crossing the boardwalk Nickar looked to his right to find the main part of the saw mill where all the logs were chopped. To his left he saw a wood elf with a bow and quiver of arrows strapped to his back carrying some chopped pieces of wood. Ahead leaning over a workbench was a blond haired woman in a dark green dress. When they were in speaking distance Ralof spoke. "Gerdur." The woman turned. "It's me Ralof." Gerdur showed a look of relief once she saw her brother in front of her. "Brother, thank the Gods! We were so worried, we heard about the Ulfric and Darkwater Crossing!" She then turned to Nickar, "Who's this, one of your comrades?" "Sister I'm fine." said Ralof with a soothing voice. "And this one, no he's not a comrade, not yet. But he's a friend, and he saved my life." Gerdur nodded and then asked, "Ralof what's going on?" I'll tell you, but I think your whole family should hear the story." answered Ralof. Gerdur nodded, "Alright I'll gather everyone." She then walked toward the saw mill and yelled, "Hod, come here a minute!" Over the sound of the saw cutting through the logs a response was heard. "Yeah what is it? Is Sven drunk on the job again?" From inside the saw mill a man with blond hair and a beard wearing a white dirt stained worker's shirt came into view. "Ralof that you?" exclaimed Hod. "I'll be down right away!" Hod after a few seconds ran to join the group. At the same time a child with blond hair and a red shirt, followed by a dog ran up to them. "Uncle Ralof!" he screamed with joy. A broad smile crossed Ralof's face as he knelt down to greet the child who looked to be about eight or nine years old. "Ah, Frodnar, good to see you lad. Look at you, you're getting so big. It won't be long before you join the fight to free Skyrim yourself." "You bet!" exclaimed Frodnar who then began to hammer his uncle with questions. "Do you get to see Ulfric? Have you killed a lot of Imperials? Can I use your axe?" Before the exited child could ask anything else, his mother stepped in. "Frodnar, let's not tire out your uncle. Go check the road, if you see any Imperials let us know. Frodnar nodded, "Yes ma. Don't worry Uncle Ralof, I won't let any Imperials sneak up on you." Once Frodnar had run off followed by his dog, Ralof sat down on a huge tree stump. "It's been so long since I slept." After a heavy sigh, Ralof told his family the whole story. About the ambush he and his men fell into, the execution without trial, the dragon attack, and finally their escape. Gerdur seemed troubled, "What about Jarl Ulfric do you think he's alright." "Ulfric is tough, I'm sure he made it out and is on his way back to Windhelm right now." Ralof replied. Hod then looked down at Ralof's knee wound. "By the nine Ralof, are you alright?" "Yes, yes, I am thanks to my friend here." he said looking to Nickar. Gerdur then looked to Nickar as well. "Any friend of Ralof's is a friend of mine." she said with a smile. "Good maybe we can lay up here for a while." I'd hate to put your family in danger Gerdur, but…" Ralof was suddenly cut off by Gerdur. "Nonsense, you two can stay as long as you need." Ralof looked up at his sister before saying, "Thank you sister." Nickar too, showed his appreciation. "Thank you ma'am, I'll try not to be a burden." Gerdur nodded, 'Hod, take these two to the house. They could use some food and rest." "Right, I'll show them to the house and show them where everything is." "You mean help them drink up our mead." she said with a laugh and sly grin. With that Hod led to Nickar and Ralof to their home, and to have some well-deserved rest.

Authors Notes:

Ok chapter three is done. Sorry if things are moving a little slowly, but they will pick up next chapter. Due to my winter break I'll have 2 chapters this week, one mid-week, the other next weekend. Anyway I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter and sorry if it was a little short. Bye y'all.

Characters and important subjects:

Gerdur and Hod- Ralof's family, you stay with them for a while before you move on as opposed to Hadvar's family

Riverwood- Small town in Skyrim, west of Helgen, and south of Whiterun.

Hammarfell- Imperial province south-west of Skyrim, is home to the Redguard people (black people)

Dragonstar- city in Hammarfell (I just looked at a map)

The Great war- The Great war began 30 years before the events of Skyrim. It was when the high elves of the Aldermarie Dominion went to war with Tamriel, or the Empire. The war ended in somewhat of a stalemate and as a result a treaty called the White-Gold Concordat was signed.

The White-Gold Concordat- At the end of the Great War a peace was made at a cost. The Empire was required to agree to the terms of this treaty. It forbid the worship of Talos and enabled the Dominion, or the Thalmore to roam Tamriel to stamp out Talos worshippers. Unfortunately the Thalmore are douc bags and started using this as an excuse to abduct people and torture them into confessing to whatever crime they want. This treaty ultimately planted the seeds to the Stormcloak Rebellion.

Talos/Tiber Septim- Talos, also known as Tiber Septim was the first Emperor of Tamriel, and the first known Emperor of the Dragon's blood. He brought the second era to a close when he conquered the entire known world, specifically Tamriel. He then brought all of the lands of Tamriel together into a vast Empire. Talos was Dragonborn and first of the line of Emperors of the Septim Dynasty. Some say he was deemed so great that when he died he became the Ninth Divine. He is ultimately the hero god of mankind. The way I look at it is he is like Jesus Christ. However the Thalmore don't like having to share the heavens with men, so that explains the Great War.

Dragonborn- We'll get to that soon enough.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4-The Golden Claw

Nickar only sat for a second before he dove into his meal of venison, potatoes, and steamed carrots. Sitting Next to him was Ralof, who like him, was shoveling food into his mouth like he had never eaten before. At this point neither of them really cared about table manners; they were starving and in great need of nutrition.

Over the past two days neither had had anything to eat other than a piece of moldy bread. It was a little past eight PM, and all shops, the smithy, and the saw mill were now closed. Gerdur laughed at the two Nord men before her. "Guess, it's been a while since either of you sat down to have a proper meal huh." Ralof nodded, "Yeah, even before my men were captured we had begun to run short on food." "I've been on the road a lot lately. I guess I never had enough time or food to have a proper meal, and becoming a captive didn't help much." Nickar said with a comedic voice.

Hod, who was standing next to Gerdur with a bottle of mead in hand asked, "So, this dragon, how big was it?" Ralof shrugged, "It all happened so fast, I don't remember much." "I do." Nickar said quickly. It was all black with red eyes, and I'd say it was as big as the inn." "So, pretty big then." replied Hod. He then placed a hand over his head in some kind of distress. "The return of the dragons, this can't be a good thing!" Gerdur quickly stopped him, "Well we can't worry about it now; hopefully the jarls can look into this and sort it out."

She then looked to Ralof and Nickar who had finished their meals and were now standing up." "Come on you two. I'm sure both of you are exhausted. Come on, I'll show you to where you'll be sleeping." She then walked down some stairs to the basement, Nickar and Ralof followed. Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, Gerdur opened the door to basement and led them in.

The basement was a square room that seemed mostly vacant with the exception of 4 beds and a bedside table by each. After both Ralof and Nickar had chosen a bed and put their belongings next to them, they looked to Gerdur who said, "Alright, let me know if you need anything else." They both thanked her, and after she left both went to their beds and slept.

With a light groan Nickar opened his eyes and sat up in his bed. For the first time in at least two days he felt well rested. Nickar had no idea what time it was or even if it was still morning. After about a minute of him waking up, he turned to Ralof in the bed next to him. Ralof was currently snoring louder than a troll's growl. 'Good thing I fell asleep before he did.' Nickar thought to himself. Nickar chuckled before putting on some clothes that had been laid out for him. They were really just sleeveless rags with ragged boots; he was fine with this, for he never was the type to dress up for anything.

After dressing he walked upstairs to the kitchen to find Frodnar, Hod and Gerdur's child sitting at the table eating some breakfast. "Good morning!" said the boy. Nickar gave the young lad a nod before asking, "What time is it?" The child thought for a second before saying, "Eleven in the morning." Nickar was shocked by this; he hadn't expected himself to sleep so late. "My mother left some eggs for you and Uncle Ralof before she and papa went to work." said Frodnar as he gestured for Nickar to sit next to him. Nickar grabbed a bowl full of eggs and sat next to the boy. The boy smiled as Nickar took his first bite. The eggs were a little cold, but still good. "The boy then asked, "So are you a Stormcloak with Uncle Ralof?" Nickar wasn't really sure what to say. Should he tell the child what he wanted to hear, or the truth? He then decided and said, "No actually. I'm just a friend of your uncle's. "Oh." said the Frodnar. "Do you fight though?" Nickar smiled, "Yeah, I guess it's fair to say I do. "Can you teach me how to fight with a sword?" asked Frodnar. Nickar blushed a bit; he didn't like to have to turn down children. "I think that's something you should talk to father or uncle about said Nickar. The boy lust nodded with a smile as Nickar finished his eggs and got up. Before he walked outside he turned to Frodnar, "Have a good day bud." With that he walked outside and into the town.

Nickar waked over to the town blacksmith's forge to sell the Stormcloak armor. Unfortunately with the condition it was in he only made 50 septims off it. He thought maybe he could get some money by working at the saw mill. As he walked down the road, he ran into the same Nord who was arguing with his mother when he and Ralof first came into town. "Hey watch where you're going!" said the Nord. Nickar didn't really have patience for these kinds of people, but he tried to keep his temper. Before Nickar could say anything, the Nord began to speak again. "I'm sorry; it's just that filthy Feandal. That damn elf thinks he can keep Camilla way from me." "Who's Camilla?" asked Nickar. Sven looked at him with a snobby look, "She's brother to Lucan. Together both of them run the Riverwood Trader. Then there's Feandal, he's crazy if he thinks Camilla will choose him over me." Nickar made an amused smile, "So the two of you are after the same girl?" He then chuckled, "When has that ever gone wrong." Sven just scoffed at Nickar before speaking again. "You could actually help me! Do you think you could give this letter to Camilla? It should be enough to make Camilla never want to talk to that elf again." Nickar took the letter and read the fake contents, and then to looked back up at Sven with scorn. "Really! Is that who you really want to be?" "It's the only way to get Camilla to stop spending time with Feandal." said Sven inn a defensive voice. Nickar rolled his eyes and asked, "Which way to the trader?" Sven smiled and pointed to the trader's building. It was building made from wood and straw and above the entrance was a balcony. Sighing, Nickar walked inside to do what he thought was right.

As soon as Nickar walked in he realized he had just walked in on an argument. There was a woman with tan skin and dark hair that was made into a curl in the back; she was also wearing a yellow dress. 'This must be Camilla.' thought Nickar. The man she seemed to be arguing must have been Lucan. Lucan, like Camilla had tan skin. He had black hair and a beard that went from below his nose to around his mouth. He wore a red tavern clothes. Due to their olive colored skin, Nickar decided that they were Imperials from Cyrodiil. They obviously hadn't seen Nickar come in because their argument continued. "Well, one of us has to do something!" Camilla exclaimed. Her brother, Lucan, responded with anger and impatience. "I said know! No adventures, no theatrics, no thief chasing, and that that is final!" Camilla didn't stop, "Well, what are you going do then? Let's hear it!" Lucan seemed to have had enough, "We are done talking about this!" Lucan then looked to the doorway where Nickar stood. When he saw Nickar his face gave a greatly embarrassed look. "Oh, a customer! Uh… sorry you had to hear that. What can I do for you?" Nickar just stood in silence for a moment before speaking up. "I have a message for Camilla Valerius." Hearing this Camilla turned to him, "That's me." Nickar walked over to her and gave her the letter. "Sven gave this to me. He wanted me to give it to you and tell you it was from Feandal." As he said this, his voice dropped in sadness for this young girl who seemed to be only a few years younger than he was. Camilla gasped as she read the letter, "Oh my, Sven wrote this?" Nickar nodded, "I'm sorry." Camilla just crumpled the letter before saying, "Don't be. I'm certainly not; if Sven was shallow enough to do this than I'm glad you told me the truth. Be sure to go tell Feandal, I think he'll be happy to know you were sticking up for him." Nickar nodded before walking over to the counter to talk to Lucan, the shop owner. "So what happened here, something did happen here right?" "Yeah we did have a bit of a break-in." responded Lucan in an embarrassed voice. "Don't worry we still have plenty to sell; the robbers were after only one thing." "What was this… thing?" Nickar asked with an almost playful voice. Lucan thought before saying, "A relic made of solid gold, in the shape of a dragon's claw." Nickar put on his unique smile, "What if I could help you get your claw back?" Lucan suddenly seemed to come to life, "Oh, well, if you could you'd be doing a great thing for me and my sister! I've got some coin I could pay you, 1000 septims; they're yours if you bring my claw back." Nickar reached his hand out to Lucan. Lucan took it and the deal was settled. "So any idea where it might be?" asked Nickar. "Yes, whoever took it is probably at Bleak-falls Barrow." "Why there?" "A large group of bandits are held up there, so the thief who stole the claw is probably with them" said Lucan." Camilla who was sitting at a table in front of the fireplace asked, "So this is your plan Lucan?" Lucan looked to his sister with an amused look, "Yes. So now you don't have to go do you?" Camilla returned the smart look, "Oh really? Well I think our little helper here needs a guide." Lucan's smile left him as he grumbled to himself. "Oh Gods Fine! But only to the edge of town." Camilla stood up and smiled, "Thank you brother." She then turned to Nickar, "Come on I'll show you the way."

As Nickar walked out with Camilla he realized it was beginning to become late in the afternoon. Before she could lead him down the road he stopped her. "Hold on, I need to see if I can make a deal with the blacksmith for some armor." Camilla gave him a nod before Nickar crossed the street to go speak with Alvor, the blacksmith. Once Nickar walked into Alvor's workspace, Alvor looked up from his work bench. "Got anything new to sell?" "No I'm actually here to buy some armor." said Nickar. Alvor stopped leaning on his workbench, "Alright, what did you have in mind?" Nickar paused for a moment, not exactly knowing how to bargain with a blacksmith. But finally, the words came to him, "I don't have enough gold to buy any armor, but I'll be able to pay you back once I've been paid for returning Lucan Valerius's golden claw. Alvor smiled, "Ah, so Lucan finally got a little helper." He then turned around to look at a table covered with swords, axes, maces, war hammers, and armor. Looking back to Nickar he asked, "If you're going after a group of bandits by yourself then the odds are against you. How can I count on you coming back?" Nickar thought for a moment before giving an answer. "If I bring that claw back it helps the town as a whole in some sort of way. Think of your weapons and armor as an investment." Alvor sighed before mumbling, "Sounds more like a blind gamble." He walked over to the table behind him and gathered some weapons and armor. After he got all the supplies together he walked back over to Nickar to which he presented the armor and sword. The armor was nothing special, just some common iron armor. It had a green color, was sleeveless, and a silver belt which wrapped around the bottom robe part of the armor. Though it was not of the best quality, it was solid and true. It also came with iron gauntlets and boots but no helm. The steel sword Alvor gave him was about as common as the armor. While handing it to Nickar, Alvor spoke up, "I know it's not the best steel out there but it'll help you get far enough." Nickar nodded, remembering something he had been taught by his Redguard teachers. 'It's not the best metal that prevails in battle, but the warrior who wields it.' Once he had rejoined Camilla, she led him to the edge of the town toward the north road that would take him to Bleak-falls Barrow.

Camilla led Nickar through the north entrance to the town and then to a bridge. She then pointed into the mountains, "You can see the barrow from right here. Once you cross the bridge, take a left. You'll know you're close when you reach the old watchtower, and of course when the weather becomes much colder. Anyway, after the watchtower the barrow should be around the corner." She then handed Nickar a fur coat that he hadn't noticed she was carrying. "Good luck." she said. Taking the coat, Nickar smiled, "I'll bring that claw back don't worry. With that Camilla walked back into the village gates and Nickar began to put on his armor and put his sword in its sheath.

Nickar had been walking for about five minutes before he put on the fur coat he had been given. Anywhere in Skyrim, even the southern parts had somewhat of a chill in the air, but as he began to walk into the mountains he could already feel himself getting cold. After walking for a while longer the old watchtower finally came into view. Nickar however hid behind some rocks when he saw a campfire near the tower's small entrance. Nickar was grateful that he was wearing his iron gauntlets since his hands were in the snow. He then peered over the rock to see what, if anything, he was up against. At first he couldn't see anything whether it was because of his poor vision or the heavy snow filled wind. Finally he saw someone; he couldn't tell what race this person was because of the distance between them. The one detail he could make out was that this person was wearing the same armor as he was, only this person also wore a horned helmet that seemed to match the set of armor he was wearing. Since he only saw one he decided that he wasn't in much danger. Nickar walked out of his hiding place, though the person didn't notice him until he was a least five yards away. Nickar soon noticed the man as an Orc, most likely a bandit since when he turned to Nickar he pulled a large great sword of his back. "Hey you there back away!" exclaimed the bandit. Nickar made no move to attack, but he did place his hand on the handle of his sheathed sword. "Where is the claw?" Nickar's question held no threat, though the bandit knew that the man in front of him wasn't going to take no response for an answer. However, the bandit who appeared to be an Orc wasn't going to get pushed around by this skinny and small Nord. The Orc then spoke up, "You picked a bad day to play hero friend!" The Orc then swung down with his large great sword which would have buried itself in Nickar's skull if he hadn't jumped back in time. The large sword swung down into the snow covered aground. Nickar took the opportunity do draw his own sword while the Orc raised his. The Orc swung again, this time sideways. Nickar parried with his own sword but was pushed back from the strong force from the heavy great sword. The Orc swung again in the other direction, but he swung too early and too far away from Nickar who then took the opportunity to strike. Nickar's one-handed sword was much lighter and therefore much quicker; this enabled him to slice into the Orc's right arm forcing him to drop his huge sword. The Orc fell to his knees clutching his wounded shoulder. Nickar then put the tip of his sword to the Orc's throat, "Where is the golden claw?" This time Nickar's voice was full of threat and almost gave voice to the fact that the Orc's life hung on the answer. When the Orc did nothing but snarl Nickar found he had no choice. Nickar swung his sword at the Orc's neck from the right. This decapitated the Orc completely, though Nickar was disappointed to see the head fall off the ledge and down the mountain with the cool looking helm on it.

Nickar walked away from the body but held his sword at the ready in case there were any more bandits camped out inside the watchtower. Nickar walked through the entrance and turned to his right to walk up some stairs. Once he had scoped out the watchtower and reached the top Nickar sheathed his sword. He looked down to find a wooden chest with no lock on it. With a smile, Nickar opened the chest to find three full coin purses; there must have been at least two hundred septims collectively in these coin purses. With a laugh Nickar put the purses into the satchel hanging on his right shoulder and quietly said to himself," Jackpot." With this money he should have plenty left over after he had paid off his debt to the blacksmith. He then turned around to find Bleak-falls Barrow. It was just on the other side of a hill that started close to the watchtower's entrance. Nickar walked back down to the watchtower to continue his little adventure.

-Bleak-falls Barrow interior

Nickar quietly slid through the large barrow doors and into the temple. The barrow's doors were huge, at least twenty feet tall. Nickar's approach to the barrow wasn't too eventful. That was until he fell down some stone steps which alerted the two bandits that were keeping watch outside. Luckily they weren't very experienced in combat so Nickar took care of them easily for the most part. Now here he was inside the barrow seeking out the golden claw. He stayed in a crouched position as he walked forward. Looking around he mostly saw ruble and a few dead skeevers. Soon he began to hear voices. "I can't believe that fool thinks he can open the temple with that claw." said a voice. Nickar hid behind a large pillar and looked around it to find three bandits sitting in front of a campfire. The voice belonged to a female Nord who wore fur armor and had a bow strapped to her back. The other two were a male Khajiit and male Redguard by the looks of it. The Redguard spoke up, "He's gonna get himself killed down there. We shouldn't have let him take the claw; it could be worth a lot to some other trader. Finally, the Khajiit spoke, "Come friends, let us have some faith. If Arvel can get the temple open, just think of the treasures that will be all ours." Nickar, having heard enough grabbed a small rock sitting next to him and quickly threw it past the bandits and into the tunnel ahead of them. The rock made a noise in the tunnel which drew the attention of the bandits. "What was that?" one said.

This is exactly what Nickar wanted. The woman and the Khajiit went into the tunnel while the Redguard stayed at the campfire with his mace at the ready. Knowing that if he tried to kill the bandit quietly, it would backfire, Nickar quickly drew his sword, ran out of his hiding place, and slashed at the bandit's back. The bandit's light armor was easy to cut through, so when Nickar slashed his sword at the Redguard's back he fell limply forward. As if the huge cut in the bandit's back hadn't killed him, his face landing in the fire certainly did. The other two bandits must have heard the commotion because they both ran back up the stairs from the tunnel. Nickar stood in his battle-stance at the ready. The Khajiit was the first to strike, swinging with his war axe which Nickar barely blocked with his sword. The Khajiit was fast with his weapon. Nickar then noticed that the woman in the background was knocking an arrow. Nickar dodged the arrow only to have to block another attack from the Khajiit. This time the axe became stuck on Nickar's sword. While the Khajiit was faster, Nickar was stronger. Nickar wrenched his sword free which caused the Khajiit to lose his grip on the axe. Nickar then thrust his sword into the heart of the Khajiit. Another arrow flew at him but hit the dead body that was still stuck to his sword. Nickar pulled his sword free and got back behind the pillar. He looked to find the bandit woman walking towards him with a dagger in hand. Nickar charged her but she side rolled to the right and slashed at his leg with great speed. The pain caused Nickar to trip, but in his attempt to catch himself he ended up falling down the stone steps into the passageway. Nickar groaned as he lay on his back. Only a few seconds had passed when the bandit woman jumped down the stairs on top of him. Nickar fought for his life as the bandit girl tried to slit his throat with her dagger. He couldn't reach his sword, but he finally got hold of the girl's wrist that was holding the dagger, but she just lashed out with her other hand punching him in the face.

Nickar almost felt embarrassed that he was getting his ass handed to him in a position that would usually be used for something else. Nickar could see the feeling in the bandit woman's eyes too; if they both were to come out of this alive they would laugh about it later. Using all his might Nickar pushed the woman off of him and got on top her. After a few more seconds of wrestling about, Nickar took the dagger from her and impaled the woman's chest with it. The woman panicked and gasped for air as blood began to flow from her chest. Nickar's sense of kindness then set in. He just softly shushed her and began to stroke her check. He then whispered, "It's…it's ok, it'll all be over soon." The woman seemed to calm down, whether because Nickar's soothing was working or because her life was fading. Before she passed Nickar whispered one more thing, "Gods guide you." The woman then closed her eyes and all life left her. After just sitting there for a moment Nickar stood up and grabbed his sword which he put in its sheath. In truth, Nickar didn't like to kill, especially when deaths were slow like that one. The whole reason he trained to become a warrior and joined the Vanguard program was so he could do some good in the world. So yeah, when he was forced to inflict a painful death among a living breathing person, the least he can do is help them on their journey to Sovngarde or the heavens.

Nickar pushed on further down the passageway and into the ruins. Every once and a while Nickar would see some potions and gold offerings laid out. Nickar would take them and put them in his satchel. Though he could see, it was still rather dark in the ruins. Nickar was never really a fan of eerie places like this. Nickar was surprised when he turned a corner and found that through a doorway he could see someone. It was obviously a bandit. The green skin gave away the fact that he was an Orc. Nickar snuck down the stairs and remained crouched in the door frame. The Orc was standing over a lever, a lever that would most likely open the metal gate Nickar saw ahead. The Orc pulled it, but only to get impaled with arrows shot from all over the room. The Orc fell, there must have been at least ten arrows lodged into his body. It was a trap, a trap set by the Ancient Nords long ago. Nickar then proceeded into the room at the far end of the room was the metal gate, and above it were some symbols. The first symbol of a snake had fallen from the wall and was now sitting as ruble on the ground. The other two were still on the wall and were symbols of a whale and eagle. Looking to his left he found some more symbols that matched the ones above the gate. He walked over to them to find that they could be rotated. After thinking for a moment, Nickar figured it out. Really it couldn't be simpler. He had to match these symbols with the symbols above the gate. He rotated the symbols to match the order above the gate. Once he was sure it was correct and in the right order Nickar pulled the lever. At first he thought he was going to be impaled with arrows, but he was relieved to see the gate open. Nickar smiled, "I'm smart." He then walked through the gate and pushed on.

Almost as soon as he walked through the gate Nickar began to realize that the number of cobwebs in the ruin was increasing. They were also getting much thicker. He reached the end of the passage way and then looked to his left to find a doorframe with the opening completely blocked with a thick layer of webs. 'No problem.' thought Nickar. He took out his sword and sliced at the webs with all his might. He then heard a voice calling out, "Hello! Who's there?! If anyone's there, please you have to help me!" Nickar sliced at the web with his blade again, this time breaking it. As he stumbled into the large room, he looked to find that the wall was thick with webs. It the center of the room on the floor was what looked to be drain of some same sort. Looking to the far side of the room, Nickar found where the call for help came from. Stuck in the webs was a Dark Elf. Once the elf he saw Nickar he called out again, "Hey over here get me down! Wait watch out for the…..!" Before Nickar made it halfway across the room, the reason for all the webs landed right in front of him. Nickar stood amazed as well as terrified at the eight legged creature that stood before him. It was a frost-bite spider, but not just any, a huge one. It stood at least a foot taller than Nickar, and was about ten feet wide. Nickar held his sword pointed at the colossal spider. The spider had rough hairs lining its legs and body. Its fangs and mandibles were drooling with frost-bite venom. Before the spider could do anything to attack its new prey Nickar suddenly went limb. Out of utter fear of the creature that stood before him, Nickar suddenly passed out and fell to the ground.

With a groan Nickar opened his eyes. He found that he couldn't move, and got his reason when he looked around him to find himself restrained to wall encased in webs. "Well look who's up. The hero idiot!" said an angry voice. Nickar found that the voice came from the same Dark Elf as before. "Why in Oblivion would you pick that time to take a nap?" Nickar just scoffed, "I don't know something about giant spiders makes me tired." The elf didn't accept the comic relief. "Well thanks to you we're both going to die here!" A moment of silence past before Nickar asked, "Do you have the golden claw?" The elf then seemed to become almost excited. "The claw, yes. The claw, the symbols, the door, I know how they all fit together!" "I've been sent here to return it to its owner in Riverwood. I take it you're the one who stole it." The elf just looked down, indicating that the accusation was obviously true. Nickar then let his voice of reason take over. "Alright, if I get us out of this you hand over the claw to me, and for your cooperation I'll let you go and make sure your name is cleared.

The thief had a look that said he wanted to argue, but when he saw the large spider slowly emerge from its hole in the ceiling he realized he didn't have much of a choice. "Alright…alright… just get it done quick, that thing looks hungry! Nickar looked to the spider slowly preparing for its next meal, almost as if it was intentionally trying to scare the life out of its two victims. Nickar could see his sword lying on the ground where he had dropped it, fortunately he wouldn't need it. In his belt, he still had his lucky dagger that had been given to him as a gift for successfully completing the vanguard program. Though Nickar couldn't see it under all the webbing he could just picture its beauty. It was of Redguard design, with a sharp curved blade, a golden hilt and rim, and the ancient writings inscribed along the blade. They said "Praise the Nine." Finally Nickar got his hand on the hilt, pulled it out, and began slowly but surely cutting at the web from the inside.

He was interrupted by a panicked voice, "Hey whatever you're gonna do, do it fast!" Nickar looked up to find the spider closing in on the thief. Logically this wouldn't matter, if the spider was busy eating the elf then he would have more time to free himself and be able to take the claw off the corpse's body. But Nickar had given the thief his word; he would get them out of this. Nickar got his right arm free and begun to cut at the rest of the thick webbing. The spider's fangs began to ooze venom. "Anytime now!" screamed the thief. Cutting the last of the webbing around him, Nickar fell to the ground.

This was enough to catch the spider's attention for it quickly turned to the escaping prey. With some sort of horrid sound the spider climbed off its web and made its way to stick its fangs into Nickar. Though before the spider reached him, Nickar swung out with his dagger cutting at the spider's first right leg. This hurt or at least shocked the spider enough to make it back up a bit.

Running over to his sword, Nickar quickly picked it up and held both his weapons at the ready. He held his sword in his right hand and his beautiful dagger in his left. He then began to yell at the spider, "COME ON…TRY ME…COME AND TRY ME!" Nickar almost immediately regretted these words, for the spider leaned on its back legs and then pounced.

Nickar was knocked on his back, but he held onto his blades. With one of the spider's legs above him, Nickar slashed at it with his sword with all his might. This cut off half of the spider's front left leg. At the same time he raised his dagger and stabbed into the spider's right mandible. With a screech the spider backed away and off of Nickar.

Getting up Nickar charged the spider and slashed at its face with his word which cut into one of its eyes. For the final blow he stabbed his dagger into the head above the mandibles while he stabbed his sword into the spider's belly. He jumped back, and a look of relief crosses his face when he saw the spider screech and fall on the hard stone floor with a thud. Nickar stabbed downward into the dead spider's head not knowing if it was really dead.

Once he was satisfied with his kill he sheathed his dagger but kept hold of his sword as he walked over to the still restrained thief. "Oh thank the Gods you killed it! Now hurry, come on cut me loose." "Hand over the claw first." said Nickar without really thinking. The Dark Elf just looked down at him with a quizzical and frustrated look. "Does it look like I can move? You have to cut me down first!" Nickar sighed, "Fine." Nickar slashed down at the webs on the right side of the thief, and then the left. With that, the thief Dark Elf fell free and was now on the ground on his knees.

Nickar then brought up the deal, "Ok, we're out of this; now give me the claw and you can be on your way." Nickar reached his hand out to the thief, the thief took it only to then stand up and head butt Nickar with the strand of metal on his hide helmet. Nickar fell flat on his back onto the ground. Where the webs had been cut, their now was a passageway that led further into the ruins. As the thief ran off Nickar heard him yell, "You fool! Why should I share the treasure with anyone?"

Moaning, Nickar sat up. He wondered why he thought for one second that he could trust that thief's word. Well to Oblivion with that now! He had tried to be the good guy and this is what he got, no more mercy. Wiping off some blood that was on his forehead from the head-butt, Nickar stood up and ran after the thief.

The thief just kept running. Normally he would watch for traps, but every moment he stopped would be time for that mercenary to catch up to him. Honestly, he didn't want to try his luck against that warrior. Anyone who could kill a spider that size was definitely formidable and not someone he wanted to tango with.

He ran down a stairway into a room with ancient corpses lying in their resting spaces on the wall. He was in such a hurry that as he passed a corpse he hadn't noticed it open its eyes and start to move behind him. He came to a halt when right in front of him walked a living corpse armed with an Ancient Nord great sword. He turned around to discover another living dead armed with a war axe. Finally, the elf looked to his left to see another running toward him with a sword in hand.

Nickar jogged after the thief, trying to make sure that the thief or something else wouldn't jump out at him. "Hey! I thought we had a deal!" he yelled. A loud scream suddenly led Nickar further down the thief's route. He ran into a room and down a stairway to find something he could see, but not exactly believe.

The thief was on the ground, screaming in agonizing pain as three walking corpses stood over him stabbing, hacking and slashing at him. Nickar didn't realize it, but at loud he said, "What the F***!" One of these corpses must have heard this, because one turned around and came after Nickar. Nickar shuddered at the sight; the corpse must have been a woman because it wore a bra. The corpse had light blue eyes, wore Ancient Nord armor, was armed with a war axe, and made growling sounds as it approached.

After the shock of seeing the dead up and walking, Nickar suddenly realized what these things were. Back, during the first era and before, when mortal men first rebelled against the dragons, there were some that fallowed the dragon priests. Dragon priests worshipped dragons as gods, so the priests and those that them had been cursed with un-death for their treachery. That's what these were, the Draugr, the dead that had been cursed to walk Skyrim's crypts.

Nickar didn't have long to think about this before the draugr lunged forward with its axe. Nickar blocked with his sword and pushed forward. Luckily, the undead didn't seem to be very strong, or very quick. Nickar swung his sword around and hit the draugr's legs, forcing it to fall. Once it was on the ground Nickar thrust his sword into its head. Nickar figured out it was dead when its blue eyes suddenly went dark.

Yanking his word free, Nickar realized that the other two draugr were now after him. One wore a helmet with curved horns and carried a great sword. The other held a normal one-handed sword. The one-handed was faster and stabbed at Nickar. He jumped back and dodged, then knocked the draugr's sword down, and then finished it by chopping its head off.

The other swung it huge sword at him. With his back against the wall, Nickar's only choice was to duck, barely missing the large blade. Nickar was happy to find that when he looked up that the draugr's sword had become stuck in the stone wall. Charging forward, Nickar stabbed his sword into the draugr's chest, forcing it to let go of its sword. After releasing his sword, Nickar was surprised to feel the draugr throw a punch that hit him in the jaw. Nickar stabbed again, this time into its neck which killed it.

Nickar just stood for a bit catching his breath before he started laughing. It was only his third day in Skyrim, and he had ventured into an old Nordic crypt and fought against things that were supposed to only be a legend, and of course he couldn't forget about the dragon attack. He walked over to the dead thief. His body had been completely desecrated; stab wounds and blood gashes were all over it. Nickar sheathed his sword and bent down to look for the claw, the first thing he found was a full coin purse which he generously helped himself to. Finally, Nickar's hands wrapped around a gold ornament in the shape of a dragon's claw. He had done it! He had the golden claw!

Authors Notes:

I hope that the story is getting a little more exciting now that our hero to be can kill off a few bad guys. As for the scene with Nickar having to slowly kill that bandit girl, his sympathy and kindness was to show what a heavy conscious he has. You'll probably see many moments like that throughout the story where his humanity is tested. Anyway hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, a new one should come out next weekend. Also, I'll gladly take notice of grammar mistakes, and if you have any suggestions, please I'd love to hear it. BE SURE TO LEAVE A REVIEW! I NEED SOME REVIEWS!

Characters and important topics:

Sven- Bard in Riverwood (Kind of an ass)

Feandal- Wood Elf in Riverwood, he fights with Sven over Camilla

Lucan Valerius- He owns the Riverwood trader

Camilla Valerius- Sister to Lucan, Sven and Feandal are constantly fighting for her attention

Alvor- Riverwood Blacksmith

Arvel the Swift- He's the thief that stole the golden claw and fled to Bleak-falls Barrow

Origins of the Draugr- The Draugr are undead Nords that walk Skyrim's burial crypts. Back in the first Era when mortal men rebelled against the dragons there were some that stayed loyal to the dragons. These were the people that are today the Draugr. Because of their treachery against mortality they were cursed with un-death.

Origins of the Dragon priests- The Dragon priests were mortal men that worshipped the dragons as gods. They were somewhat of prophets to the Draugr that carried out the dragons' will. Like the Draugr, all of the priests in the order have been cursed with un-death for their treachery.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5- Onward

Nickar smiled and looked at the claw. It was beautifully crafted and made of solid gold. On the palm of claw were some symbols like the ones he had seen before, but completely different shapes. This time the symbols were a bear, a butterfly, and an owl.

Nickar thought back to what the thief said, about the claw, the symbols, and the door. The thought of riches behind his wildest dreams enticed Nickar; however he wasn't going to let greed be the death of him, unlike that thief.

Standing up, Nickar looked to the hacked up corpse that once belonged to the Dark Elf; now it looked like a blind man had miserably failed to cut a piece of meat multiple times. As he turned back to leave the ruin he suddenly felt whispers in his head. They were soft, yet as deafening as a large clap of thunder. They were piercing his mind. His head ached, he soon figured out that something was calling out to him; in other words trying to draw him further into this ancient crypt. Nickar took a step forward towards the calling and it began to die down and turn to a faint whisper.

Nickar didn't know what to make of this. Every bone in his body was telling him that it was a trap and that he should leave. However his heart and own blood seemed to be urging him to explore the calling. He could feel the will to explore in his soul. Deciding that he had nothing to lose, and that there was only one way to get rid of this headache, he pushed on.

After taking the first few steps, his eyes spotted a pressure plate on the stone base of the ground. Looking forward and to his right he saw the trap; a metal wall of spikes that would swing out if one stepped on the pressure plate. Walking around and past it, he thought about whoever the poor bastard that would fall for that trap would be.

Pushing through the ruin hadn't been too difficult, the draugr he came across weren't very smart; however the he fell for and was almost killed by many different traps.

He was both relieved and cautious when he reached a hall with a large door at the end but at the same time looked too good to be true. There didn't seem to be any visible traps, maybe it was just the ominousness of the hall. As he slowly walked toward the door he looked to both sides of the hallway. On the walls were stone-carvings all foretelling great prophecies and legends. Nickar couldn't make heads or tails of them so he didn't pay much attention.

Once he reached the door he discovered that the door had 3 layers of rings on it. These rings were all rotatable and had the same markings as the golden claw on them. Below the three rings in the center was a circle that had three holes in it. It looked as if the dragon claw would fit in, it did but there was no affect.

Nickar looked to the symbols on the claw and then to the symbols on the door. He turned the rings on the door, reorganizing the symbols to match the order of symbols on the claw. Once this was done, he inserted the claw into the door again; this time the circle turned to both sides and then the large stone door began to lower and open.

Nickar quickly grabbed the claw and walked into the room the opened door had just produced. Of course, room wasn't really the right word to describe this space. It was a large cavern that Nickar guessed was the heart of the ruin.

Nickar could feel he was close to whatever was drawing him further into the ruin. Looking ahead, he could see the end of the cavern and briefly what was there. He walked forward; small groups of bats flew past him. He reached the end of the cavern and walked up some stone steps and to his left was a large black metal coffin.

To his right was a curved stone wall, white in color. This was what was calling out to him. This curved wall seemed to be lined with writing in another language unknown to Nickar. Three of these characters seemed to be standing out and were gleaming a bright blue color. As Nickar walked up to them, an energy of some kind went from the characters on the wall to him. After a few seconds of watching this energy channel through him, the lit up characters on the wall returned to normal.

This was odd; it felt as if his soul had just taken in some kind of power. Nickar didn't have long to reflect on this for he heard a snap and some stone cracking behind him.

Whirling around Nickar saw a draugr climbing out of the black coffin. This draugr seemed to be more heavily armored than the others Nickar had seen. It wore Ancient Nord armor, carried a round iron shield, and held an Ancient Nord sword. The sword seemed to be producing some kind of magical effect; it must have been enchanted.

Nickar found that he was backing away from it; a bash from that shield would leave him completely vulnerable. Nickar slashed at the draugr from the left, but the draugr brought up its shield deflecting the sword. Nickar, stunned slightly, backed away.

Nickar had been expecting a sword attack from the draugr, so when it moved its sword and shield to the side slightly Nickar was surprised. The draugr began do mumble something, "Fus." Along with a thundering echo, whatever power the draugr produced let out a powerful force that knocked Nickar off his feet and down the short flight of stairs. Nickar groaned, he had seemed to have fallen down multiple staircases since he arrived in Skyrim.

He scrambled to get up when he saw the draugr running down the stairs toward him. He had just picked up his word when the draugr slashed at his unprotected right arm. A good sized cut formed on Nickar's sword arm, it was freezing and seemed to be covered in frost. The sword must have had some type of ice enchantment on it.

Nickar put some distance between himself and the draugr, as long as it had that shield it would be difficult to kill, and his wounded arm didn't help. Nevertheless, he charged forward swinging his sword down which was once again blocked by the shield. The draugr then pushed its shield forward pushing Nickar back even more. Nickar then slashed at the draugr's feet, a successful hit but other than tearing into the dead flesh not too much damage was done.

The draugr then swung out with its weapon which Nickar blocked with his sword. With their swords locked Nickar held his in both hands and suddenly twirled around to the left and around the draugr. This put the draugr off balance and himself behind it; seizing the opportunity Nickar cut off the wrist of draugr's sword arm leaving it with no weapon. Nickar groaned in pain, the large cut on his own sword arm made it difficult and painful to swing.

Nickar was about to drive his sword into the draugr's head when it suddenly turned around and let out another shouting noise, "Fus!" The force knocked Nickar on his back and forced him to lose grip of his sword.

The draugr hurried over to him shield raised ready to bash his head in. Suddenly Nickar realized he had a trick up his sleeve that he himself had forgotten about. Some of the restoration spells he had been taught could affect undead creatures such as vampires and these draugr.

Quickly summoning magika, Nickar raised both his hands and let out a single burst of sun fire. The cleansing light purged the dead skin of the draugr as it dropped its shield. It fell to its knees burning with the sun fire, lifting his left hand Nickar let out another burst of the sun fire. This knocked the draugr flat on its back burning with light. It lay there for a few seconds, and with a final growl its glowing blue eyes went out and it died. Again.

With a groan, Nickar stood up and grabbed his sword; with his hurt arm keeping the sword in a steady grip was difficult. He walked over to the draugr's corpse; it looked as if it had literally visited the sun. Nickar had been taught that spell but never really known what it really did until now.

Just for good measure Nickar took his sword in both hands and jammed in into the draugr's head. 'Can't be too careful' he thought.

Nickar was about to walk away but stopped when he saw a strange stone that the draugr was holding onto. Bending down Nickar picked it up, it was at least fifteen pounds, and it had some strange markings on it. But like that wall that was calling out to him he didn't have a clue as to what these markings were and meant.

Nickar slid the stone into his satchel; it had to be worth something. Nickar walked away from the stream and back up to where the wall was. Whatever effect it had produced before the draugr emerged was gone now.

Nickar then walked up a large flight of stairs and reached an iron door. Opening it he realized it led into a very small cavern, it was a dead end. Nickar then suddenly noticed a pull chain. 'It could be a trap' he thought, but it could also be a way out of the ruin as well.

He needed to get out of the ruin as soon as possible. The large cut on his right arm was now more of a gash. He was losing only a little bit of blood but the icy enchantment wasn't helping; the wound could be getting infected.

He pulled the chain and was relieved when he saw part of the wall ahead of him slide down opening a passageway. Nickar took it and eventually found a door that took him directly outside.

The cold air shocked him as he rushed out. It was night, judging by how dark it was it was at least twelve in the morning. Looking around Nickar noticed that the environment wasn't snow covered like up near the entrance to the barrow. Nickar swore, he was lost and had always had a horrible sense of direction. The cold air worsened the freezing effect on his wound.

He then walked out of the trees and found a road. He crossed the road and walked down to a river to get some water. It had been a while since he had some water, even longer since he had a bottle of mead.

Scooping both his hands down into the water he grabbed a mouthful and put it to his mouth. This quenched his thirst enough for now. Just to be safe he also put some water onto his wound in an attempt to wash it out. Normally he would treat his wound with his restoration magic, but this wound in particular was beyond his power to heal.

Walking back up to the road Nickar realized something he had been oblivious to before. A wooden street sign, pointing to his left was an arrow that had Riverwood written on it. Nickar followed the arrow and walked down the road for about 15 minutes before he could see Riverwood in view. He walked into the village gates, and quickly made his way to the Riverwood Trader. He was surprised to find that the door was unlocked; he would have thought that the owners would have closed up and gone to bed.

He walked into the building and found Lucan behind the counter and Camilla sitting at a table. They both seemed to come to life when they saw him.

Excited, Camilla asked, "Any luck?"

Nickar reached into his satchel and held up the trader's prized possession and then placed it on the counter right in front of Lucan.

A broad smile crossed Lucan's face and with a laugh said, "Oh wow, you…you found it! I can't believe it!"

Nickar suddenly felt arms wrap around him at his side. He looked to find Camilla holding him in a tight embrace.

A bright smiled formed on her face, "It means so much to us to have the claw back where it belongs! Thank you, thank you so much. Gods bless you!"

"Just doing my job." said Nickar as he carefully freed himself from her embrace.

Nickar had no idea why, but he typically had no idea how to handle affection from women. Though, it wasn't like he had many options growing up in a training camp in Hammarfell. As a teenager none of the young vanguard girls had liked him very much, but his best friend Niro, well that was a different story.

Lucan after staring dead at the claw for a few seconds placed the claw back down on the counter and crouched to get something below him. He stood back up with three full coin purses in his hands, "As promised, here's that gold. How did you get it back anyway?"

Nickar looked down to the floor and then up again before responding, "That would take a little too much time to explain and I'm a little tired."

"Oh, of course, thank you you've done a great thing for me and my sister." said Lucan.

With a nod Nickar turned to leave but couldn't help but grip his worsening injury. Nickar didn't want to bother these people with his injury; however it was still unfortunately noticed by Camilla.

"By the gods your arm, that gash!"

Nickar just waved her off, "It's nothing don't worry about it."

Camilla was unconvinced, 'That kind of damage from fire or frost can be fatal!"

Nickar gulped a bit, that wasn't what he wanted to hear. Camilla motioned for him to sit at the table, "Hold on, I'll go get something to treat that."

She ran up the wooden staircase to the upstairs part of the shop. Nickar looked to the trader, "Sorry, I know you've been waiting for me to return all day and you'd like to go home now."

Lucan just smiled, "Don't worry about it. We owe you a lot and Camilla always wants to help people."

Nickar gave a slight chuckle before Camilla came running down the stairs with a single potion in hand. She walked over and handed it to him, "This is for frost resistance. Take it and the frost damage should heal in no time."

Smiling, Nickar took the fist-sized potion and chugged in in one go. He then stood up and issued his goodbyes to both of them. Camilla took him in a tight hug once again. Nickar felt awkward. Why did she keep hugging him? Once she let go Nickar gave her a smile and then left the building to go back to Hod and Gerdur's house.

Later at Hod and Gerdur's house-

Nickar stood in the corner of the basement room taking his armor off while Ralof sat completely amused. When Nickar had finished putting on his ragged sleeveless robes he noticed Ralof giving him a strange look.

"What?" he asked.

Ralof shrugged, "Oh nothing, you just seem to have already made quite a name for yourself after being here for only a day."

Nickar chuckled, "Well, I try."

"I mean first I hear you break up a town love triangle, and then next thing I know you've left town to go get the trader's stolen claw. And yet you're still here living and breathing after the fight with all those bandits."

Nickar shrugged a bit, "I guess I just got lucky."

"No!" said Ralof with a serious voice. After a few seconds Ralof continued, "True Nords make their own luck."

Nickar gave Ralof a nod; he had never put much faith into luck because if he did he'd have to accept a very unpleasant fact into his life. Most of the time, his luck was less than good.

Nickar then lied down on his bed to go to sleep, he was exhausted. Though right before he closed his eyes he heard a question come from Ralof, "Hey you all right? Since you came back you've acted like you've seen something unnatural, something ancient."

Nickar hadn't told Ralof or anyone of what he found lurking deep inside of the ruins of Bleak-falls Barrow, or of that wall that was calling out to him. Quite honestly he didn't feel like sharing any of this, so his response was, "I have. I saw a winged lizard that was supposed to be legend burn a village and slaughter innocent people. I guess you could say I'm still a little shaken."

"I see." Ralof said calmly. Both of them soon fell asleep in their bunks afterwards.

Riverwood Northern gate-

It was at least ten in the morning and Nickar was preparing to leave to begin his voyage through Skyrim. He had paid off his debt to the blacksmith and had all his gear ready to travel. The first place he was going was the hold capital, Whiterun, which was ruled by Jarl Balgruuf the Greater.

This was his repayment to Ralof's family for letting him stay with them for a while. He was to go to Whiterun to tell the jarl about the dragon attack at Helen, and to request that the jarl send a guard force to Riverwood for protection.

Whiterun was also apparently a great place to start a living in Skyrim; its center location made it a great trading hub. As to the jarl of Whiterun's place in the war, he was neutral, but was expected to eventually drift over to the empire's side.

Nickar had just said goodbye to Ralof's family and was walking away when he heard a whistle behind him. It was Ralof dressed out of his Stormcloak armor, 'He probably didn't want to attract any Imperial attention.' thought Nickar.

Ralof looked a little displeased but with a laugh said, "What? You can't just leave without telling a friend goodbye."

Nickar laughed back, 'Yeah sorry, I couldn't find you. Do you plan on leaving today?

Ralof sighed and rubbed at his knee, "No, with this injury I won't be fit to travel until at least two more days."

Nickar shrugged, "Ah, well sorry about that." He then stuck his right hand out to Ralof; Ralof took it in a strong handshake.

"Good luck my friend, I hope to see you in Windhelm someday. Nickar nodded and turned and walked out of the town gates and away from Riverwood.

Nickar crossed the stone bridge over the river and walked over to the wooden road sign. If he turned to his left he would be going in the same direction he took to reach Bleak-falls barrow. According to the sign, turning right would take him down the road to Whiterun. After checking that he had all his weapons, armor, and other gear with him, he went down the road to the right to reach the hold capital.

As he walked down the road next to a river he saw on the other side a dog hunting alongside a its master, a hunter. The hunter seemed to be looking for tracks of game he could hunt. Nickar had never really been a good tracker, so therefore he was never a good hunter. In fact Nickar seemed to feel that way about everything; it seemed that everything a person could be skilled at he wasn't. Even though he had trained to be an elite warrior his whole life he had many faults and never compared to some of the other vanguards.

Thinking about this made him angry, with a slight growl he hulled off and punched the trunk of a tree with all his might. The powerful punch along with the iron gauntlet made a large mark in the trunk. Nickar just leaned against the tree and rested his head on it, strange sounds that sounded of crying came from Nickar, but he would never shed a tear. He would never again truly cry or let sadness get the better of him. Ignoring emotions was now a reflex for him. Getting a grip on himself he continued down the road.

After walking a little over two miles he could see Whiterun in view. The old and ancient, but tall and strong walls went around the city. In the center of the city was a tall massive building. Even from this distance Nickar instantly recognized it as Dragonsreach, the jarl's palace. Looking over the beautiful plains of Whiterun Nickar could see that there were plenty of farms and other buildings outside the city's tall walls.

Deciding he had about another half-mile to go Nickar continued down the road but was stopped by a voice with a heavy accent. "Hail traveler, such masterpiece to be found in these lands hmm?"

Nickar turned around to find a Khajiit wearing tan robes and a hood. As the cat man walked up to him, Nickar greeted the fellow traveler, "Oh hey. Sorry I didn't see you there."

The Khajiit didn't even seem to acknowledge what Nickar said for he continued, "M'aiq can travel fast across the land; some lazy types take carriages, it is all the same to M'aiq."

A puzzled and confused look now showed on Nickar's face, "Ok…that's…that's nice. You want to tell me your name?"

"M'aiq's father was also called M'aiq, as was M'aiq's father's father, at least that's what his father said."

Nickar was actually trying not to laugh at what this Khajiit was saying. He didn't get it, was this some trick the Nine Divines were playing on him, or was this Khajiit simply high off Skooma.

Once he had repressed his laugh Nickar asked another question, "So M'aiq, that's your name?"

Much to Nickar's surprise and annoyance M'aiq said, "M'aiq is tired now, go bother somebody else."

This didn't anger Nickar but was rather strange to him, "Sorry, it's just that you came over to talk to me."

M'aiq didn't seem to pay any attention to this, "M'aiq is done talking."

Nickar deciding he could have run to Whiterun in the time he had spent talking to this moon sugar hooked Khajiit responded, "Alright well goodbye then." Nickar walked away from the Khajiit with a confused yet hysterical look on his face.

Nickar walked down a hill, up ahead was a bridge that would by the looks of it lead him down a road to some of the farms outside the walls. To his left was a road that passed the Hummingbrew Meadery and would eventually take him to the city gates. Since Nickar had no interest in farming and of course because he had an urgent message for the jarl took the ladder road.

Nickar had passed the meadery a minute ago and was walking down the road when he saw three people on the road running toward him. Two of them looked to be farmers with their dirt stained clothes and more ragged appearance. One was a man, one a woman, and with them ran a Whiterun hold guard.

The guard wore a masked steel helmet, a golden yellow uniform with chainmail beneath it, fur boots, and was equipped with a steel sword and wooden shield with the symbol of Whiterun inscribed on it.

As they were running past him, Nickar stopped the guard to ask, "What's going on? Why are you running?"

The guard panted a bit before answering with a heavy breath, "Giant…attacking farm! I need to get these people to safety."

The guard and the farmers then ran off as Nickar drew his sword and ran to what looked to be a farm up ahead. Nickar was about halfway there when a wooden wheel barrel came flying at him out of the sky.

"Shit!" screamed Nickar as he dove to the ground to dodge the incoming threat. It missed him by at least a foot before it came crashing down on the ground shattering into pieces.

As Nickar quickly jumped to his feet he could hear the sounds of battle coming from the farm. He left the road to get to the farm, and as he jumped over a small rock wall he saw it.

The giant was at least nine to ten feet tall. It wielded a giant club that must have been as long as Nickar was. It was mostly naked except for some furs covering its crotch and a bandolier across its shoulder.

The giant wasn't very pleasant looking; its skin was pale white and latched onto its bones making it look very bony, its stomach stuck out slightly and didn't have much muscle, and lastly was its filthy short beard that was a blackish color. Nevertheless, the giant was large and quite strong; its fight with the surrounding three warriors proved it. These three warriors all looked very different.

One Nord woman was dressed in Ancient Nord armor that looked very light considering how much of her body it showed. Across her face were three strands of black war paint that all went diagonally across her face. Her hair was a light brown color, almost red. As for her weapons, she was holding a bow and had a quiver of arrows across her back with a dagger in its sheath on her belt. Nickar in any other situation would be staring and drooling all over her, for she was probably the most attractive woman he had seen since he arrived in Skyrim.

Another woman who looked to be Imperial due to her olive colored skin was dressed in hide armor. Like the other woman's armor, the hide armor was light. She wielded a steel sword and in her left hand was a large banned iron shield. Like the first woman, this was one was also quite attractive, she had dark hair, her tan skin would turn anyone on, and she had a little bit of war paint on her face as well.

Lastly was a male Nord. He wore a set of heavy steel armor that covered most of his body and looked difficult to breach. The only weapon he seemed to have was a large two-handed iron great sword. Nickar could just tell by looking at the parts of the man's arms that weren't covered by armor and by the outline of the armor around his body that this Nord was extremely muscular and strong. He had long black hair, a shaved but dirt covered face. In fact most of his body was covered in dirt.

Not really thinking about it, Nickar ran towards the battle. As the three warriors closed on the giant it swung its large club to the left at the two female warriors, the Imperial brought up her shield for defense but was still knocked back, the Nord swiftly back flipped out of the clubs way but was momentarily stunned.

The large male Nord swung his large sword at the giant's leg, cutting it deeply. The giant growled in pain as it took its injured leg back and kicked the Nord with the other. The Nord was knocked back with a flip and landed in some potato plants, dropping his sword in the process.

The Imperial warrior was still recovering, even though she blocked the giant's swing with her shield the heavy force could have broken a bone. The female Nord however was back in action; she knocked and shot an arrow that just missed the giant's heart. The giant groaned, but otherwise the arrow didn't do too much damage.

The woman was shocked when the giant picked up a rake and threw it at her. The giant's throw had great force to it. The woman tried to dodge but was to late when the rake hit her side cutting her and knocking her to the ground.

The giant was about let out a roar of victory, but was cut off when another warrior started running at him. It was Nickar, he ran past the Nord woman at the giant with his sword pointed out ahead of him. He also found that his eyes were slightly closed and he was trying to look away. He was after all running at a ten foot tall creature that could crush him like a bug.

When the giant swung its club at him Nickar swore, and side rolled to dodge the club. With the club out of the way, Nickar quickly got to his feet and drove his sword into the giant's stomach. The giant groaned in agony but was somehow still moving; it punched down with its left hand hitting Nickar and crumpling him to the ground.

After yanking the sword out of his stomach the giant proceeded to crush the stunned man in front of him with his club. The giant's attack was stopped when the Imperial warrior rammed into the giant, shield first causing the giant to have to regain its footing.

The Imperial then slashed at the giant's side with her sword, forming at cut. The giant retaliated and swung around with its fist which hit the Imperial and knocked her right on her back forcing her to lose grip of her sword and shield.

The woman got up quickly but wouldn't be fast enough, for the giant was getting ready to swing out with its club, this would surely kill her.

Nickar as he was getting up saw this and screamed, "No!"

The giant swung, but before the club could hit the woman, Nickar dove in front of it pushing the women out of the way and blocking the club with his body.

The hit was devastating; the club hit Nickar with bone breaking force that sent him flying into a wooden fence breaking it and to the ground. Nickar wasn't moving, he couldn't; he felt as if every bone in his body was broken. He could see the battle continue without him as he blacked out into darkness.

The giant screamed a war cry to show its might. But as it was doing this, it was oblivious to the injured Nord woman knocking an arrow from the ground. She shot the arrow right into the giant's right eye. The arrow was burrowed deeply into the socket; the giant screamed in agonizing pain and dropped its club to clutch at the arrow.

While it was doing this the woman shot another arrow which buried itself into the giant's other eye. The giant let out another scream, and was completely blind physically and to the fact that the big brute Nord in heavy armor had reclaimed his large sword and was closing in for another attack.

The Muscle bound Nord swung up with his great sword cutting the giant from its right leg all the way to its chest. With another agonizing sound it fell to the ground on its knees and one hand, the other hand was busy clutching at the arrows in its eyes. The Nord swung up with his sword and delivered a final blow beheading the giant.

Once it was obvious that the giant wouldn't be a problem anymore the male Nord ran over to the female Nord who was on the ground slightly bleeding. "Aela, are you alright?!" His voice was deep and sounded about as tough as he looked.

The woman named Aela clutched at the wound and groaned, "Fine…I'm fine."

As the man helped Aela to her feet he got a sarcastic look on his face, "Nice shooting, I think you should lead with that next time."

Aela laughed, "Now what would be the fun in that, brother Farkas."

Farkas frowned and looked around for the Imperial woman; she was nowhere to be found. "Where the hell is Ria?" he asked.

Aela looked around and returned his frown, I don't know. She then called out to her, Ria!"

Ria returned the call from where Nickar had gone after the giant's club hit him, "Over here!"

Aela and Farkas ran past the broken fence to find Ria crouched over the man that had come to help them in their fight. He looked as if all of his bones were shattered, in fact he looked dead.

Ria turned to Aela and Farkas as they ran up, 'We need to help him!"

Farkas sighed, "Don't see how we can, he looks dead."

"Aela scoffed, "Sight is only one sense numb skull!"

Aela crouched down on the other side of Nickar and took off his armor from the waist up. Other than the fact that all of his bones looked broken, he had a nicely formed body. He had slightly small but strong arms, a defined stomach, and well enough toned chest.

Aela put her ear to his heart, "He has a pulse, it's faint, but it's there."

Ria let out a sigh of Relief, "Oh thank the Gods!"

"We need to get him to the city for some help." said Farkas.

Aela scoffed, "Well no shit dumbass!"

Farkas groaned in anger but dropped it, "Yeah yeah. This guy isn't big, I'll carry him and you two can get his stuff."

Aela nodded and Farkas picked up Nickar almost with ease and carried him on his shoulder. As Aela rounded up Nickar's things she looked to Ria who looked a little dazed, "Ria, are you alright?"

Ria snapped out of her daze, "Yeah fine, It's just…he saved my life." Ria seemed to leave reality and go into her imagination or own world as she said this.

When she finally snapped out of it Aela smiled and cracked a joke, "Come on we need to get back to Joorvaskr, but don't worry you can thank your hero later." They both ran after Farkas who was already half way back to the city walls with Nickar over his shoulder.

Joorvaskr, 1 day later-

With a groan Nickar slowly opened his eyes. He breathed heavily as he looked around. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was jumping in front of the giant's club. Every part of his body felt sore, but at least nothing felt broken. He leaned up slightly to find that he was entirely naked other than the loincloth covering his, well his, you know.

He was interrupted by a familiar voice, a voice he would know anywhere, "Hey there, look who's up. When a giant swings its club at you you're supposed to get out of the way dumb ass."

Nickar looked to his right to find a familiar face sitting in a chair next to the bed he was laying in.

"Niro?"

It was the man he had known since he was seven years old, the one he had grown up with and trained with his whole life, the one whose back he had and who had his. It was his best friend, Niro. Suddenly he didn't care where he was, his best friend was right next to him. He trusted him.

Author's Notes:

Well here's chapter 5. I hope the story is becoming less tedious now that things are starting to pick up. If not please let me know. I'm glad I got to put in a game Easter egg for this chapter, LOL. Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, I really don't know when the next chapter will come out, hopefully soon. PLEASE REVIEW OR GIVE SOME INDICATION THAT YOU'RE READING THIS BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T HOW WILL I KNOW THAT ALL THIS TYPING DOESN'T GO TO WASTE!

Characters and important topics:

M'aiq the Liar- He's this Khajiit who appears in all the Elder Scrolls games and who can be found when exploring. He always has something to say, except when he's tired.

Aela the Huntress- Hot companion girl, I think it would be fair to say that at least 50% of Skyrim players decided to marry her. It's just a guess though.

Farkas- Another member of the companions.

Ria- Newest member of the companions, until the player comes along.

Niro- Own creation, we'll talk about him next chapter, but don't worry you'll be seeing a lot of him through the story.

Nords- The race of men that rule Skyrim, they are hardy and value honor and prowess in combat, have racial tendencies.

Redguards- The race of black men that rule Hammarfell, they're considered the best natural warriors.

Imperials- The race of men that that live in Cyrodiil, the heartland of the empire.

Bretons- The race of men that rule High Rock.

Argonians- The lizard people that rule Black Marsh.

Khajiit- The cat people that rule Elsweyr, they are excellent traders but are also unfortunately responsible for much of the crime across Tamriel.

Wood elves Bosmer- The elves that rule Valenwood, they are remarkable archers and have been known to control animals.

Dark Elves/Dunmer- The elves that rule Morrowind, they are gifted in destruction magic.

High Elves/Altmer- The elves that rule Summerset Isle, their species rule the Aldermarie Dominion. They are gifted in all the magical fields.

Orc/Orismer- They're supposed to be elves, their homes our mostly Orc fortresses scattered across Tamriel, but they are known to live somewhere in the mountains between Skyrim and Hammarfell.

If you want more info look it up because I don't know quite enough to educate.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6- Old Friends and New Friends

Niro just sat in the chair next to the bed with a huge grin. Nickar groaned as he sat up, every bone in his body felt sore. "Ah what happened, where am I?"

"A place where you don't have to worry about giant clubs." Niro muttered sarcastically.

Nickar groaned in annoyance, "Yeah whatever, forgive me for going out of my way to do the right thing."

Niro chuckled and handed him some clothes, "Might want to put these on, there are people around that may be put off by your six-flab." Niro had an amused look as he toyed with his friend; however Nickar just waved him off knowing it was all in good humor.

Nickar put on the sleeveless robes and asked, "Seriously what is this place, and why are you here? I thought you were staying in Hammarfell to join the Alikeer."

Niro once again put on his comedic grin, "Well why you were touring about Cyrodiil, probably trying to have your way with some Imperial slut, I decided that Skyrim needed men like us more than Hammarfell. So I came here to Whiterun to join the Companions. That's where we are right now, Joorvaskr, the Companion's mead hall."

Nickar looked stunned, "Wait, you mean the Companions…of Ysgramor?"

Niro nodded, "Yeah bud, the three months you were in Cyrodiil I was here earning my up to the Circle."

Nickar now looked even more surprised, "The Circle! But aren't the Circle the group that lead the Companions?" Niro smirked while he nodded. "How'd you do that so fast man?" Nickar asked?

Niro's face now became more serious as he spoke, "I shouldn't have to tell you what vanguards can do."

Nickar just sat on his bed and frowned, "Yeah, not so much me."

Niro scowled, "You've never given yourself enough credit man. You're always there for other people, but never for yourself."

Nickar looked back up to his friend, "That's cause things are always out of my reach."

"Hey, let's not forget who came out of the cavern looking like a god while all those other milk drinkers came out begging for help!" Niro's words became more heated as he spoke.

Nickar also slightly raised his voice, "Man that was ten years ago!"

Niro didn't let up, "Well what about that giant?!"

Nickar gave Niro a quizzical look, "What about the giant?"

Niro gave Nickar a look that suggested that this should be obvious, "After that giant smacked you to hell every bone in your body was broken, nobody expected you to make it. When Aela, Farkas, and Ria took you to the temple of Kynereth, the priest said you probably wouldn't make it. But when I found out it was you that had been turned inside out, dammit, I told them that you were a hard bastard and you'd pull through, and here you are now living and breathing."

Nickar's heart sank, his friend was right, he did spend too much time worrying about what he couldn't do that he forgot what he could and did do. He let out a sigh, "You're right."

Niro chuckled at the statement, "When have I ever been wrong man?"

As soon as Nickar stood up, the doors to the bedroom opened and in walked 3 warriors, all Nords. Two of which he had seen before, one was the woman with the war paint on her face; the other was large man with the great sword on his back. He had never seen the man in the middle, he looked to be pretty old; he was at least in his late seventies or early eighties. He wore an armor set that was unknown to Nickar; he had grey hair and a long beard.

"Well, it's good to see you're up and around boy." The old man had a deep Nord voice that was full of wisdom and backed all of his years.

Nickar walked over to him and shook his hand, "Thanks for getting me out of there. By what my friend's told me I wouldn't have made it, you have my deepest thanks."

The old man smiled but seemed to get a look that said he had seen him before. This did not go unnoticed by Nickar, "Is everything all right?"

The old man snapped out of his gaze and continued, "Hmm, oh yes. I am Kodlak White-mane, harbinger of the Companions, and these two are the ones you should thank, they brought you here."

Kodlak stepped out of the way as he said this so that the two warriors could introduce themselves. The woman with war paint stepped up first, "I'm Aela the Huntress, but it's probably best you just call me Aela."

As Nickar shook her hand he caught himself looking down admiring her body, and apparently so did Aela. She broke off the handshake and sighed; Nickar wanted to apologize but felt that it would only cause a scene. Plus he wouldn't have meant it anyway.

As she stepped back, the big Nord in steel armor stepped forward and offered his hand. "Farkas, brother to Vilkas."

Nickar shook his hand and just nodded having no idea who Vilkas was. He then spoke up, "So y'all are the companions?"

Kodlak stepped forward once again, "Yes, though there are more of us."

"Many more." Niro added. He was still sitting in that chair behind Nickar.

After a few seconds of silence Aela spoke up, "All of your gear is waiting outside in the training yard. You can get it as your leaving." Once she had finished talking she turned and left the room followed by Farkas.

Kodlak stayed. "From what Aela, Farkas, and your friend here have told me, you are quite the warrior."

Behind Nickar Niro nodded in agreement, "He is, I've known him since we were kids. He's the toughest son of a bitch I know."

Nickar turned to his friend to signal him to stop bragging on him. Nickar hated it when people boasted about him, it made him feel like he was being built up just to fail in the end.

Nickar turned his attention back to Kodlak who continued, "Well then, how are you in battle my boy."

This time Niro let Nickar answer for himself who replied, "I can handle myself, but I've definitely got some things I can learn."

Kodlak smiled at this answer, "Humble, yet you have confidence. These are the principles of an honorable warrior."

Nickar shrugged, "Thank you, I appreciate that."

Kodlak nodded, "If so you choose, the Companions will welcome you with open arms." He then turned and left the room leaving Nickar and Niro alone.

Finally Niro stood up; he was wearing his Redguard clothes as opposed to the heavy armor made of hard stone. His stone armor was his gift from the Redguard instructors of the Vanguard program as opposed to Nickar's gift, the dagger.

Niro had an interesting family tree. His mother was a Nord while his father was Redguard; they both came from great warrior cultures and were great warriors themselves. That was until they were killed; like Nickar's parents Niro's were killed by the Thalmore. That was always something that Nickar and Niro had in common, they both hated the Thalmore. As a result they constantly had each other's back as children, and they always stayed together. And here they were once again together.

Due to cross between a Redguard father and Nord mother, Niro was a Nord but had skin tan enough to be mistaken for an Imperial. Like Nickar his hair was short compared to most Nords but instead of having bangs like Nickar did, his hair was mostly shaved. Also instead of the wiry build that Nickar had, Niro had a bigger more muscular build.

After just standing there for a while, Nickar chuckled, "So, it looks like you made it your mission to get me to join the companions. Aint't that right bud?"

Niro laughed, "Come on man it'll be just like old times. Trust me; you'll be in the Circle shortly."

No one quite understood the way the way the two friends spoke to each other. Their language could be described as informal, unsophisticated, or undignified. To them it really didn't matter, they thought that if someone had a problem with the way they talked, they would have said so by now.

Nickar wasn't sure how to tell his friend that he wasn't really here to join the companions. Though it didn't matter, for Niro had basically already read his friend's mind.

He just chuckled at this, "So, you're still chasing that whole idea of where you came from and all that shit." Nickar looked at Niro almost offended, "We all came from somewhere, I want to find out where I came from."

Niro quickly retorted, "That place, those people are dead now! You belong with us! You belong with me when we finally take down the Dominion, not chasing ghosts and shadows!"

Now Nickar had become impatient and it showed as he angrily growled, "Who the hell are you to make that call for me? I appreciate you trying to help me, but if I want to roam around and pick up pieces of my past than what the hell is it to you?!"

"More than you'd know!" Niro's aggressive tone suddenly calmed down and he continued, "You're my best friend, I want to help you."

However Nickar's anger didn't die down, "Then let me make this decision by myself!"

After he said this he stormed through the doors into the main hall of Joorvaskr. He stopped when he saw the magnificent room before him. The whole structure seemed to be made of wood, there was red cloth across the room for decoration, and in the middle of the room was a huge fire pit surrounded by tables on three sides.

Nickar had been so overtaken with the room that he hadn't noticed that everyone was staring at him for when he stormed through the doors. He could hear Niro walking up behind him, but he wasn't really in the mood to argue with him anymore.

He continued to angrily walk towards one of the back doors of Joorvaskr. He left the building and walked into the back yard. The first bit was more like a porch, there were more tables and it was roofed. Further out into the yard were wooden combat practice dummies.

Against one of the pillars holding the roof up were all his weapons, armor, and other gear. He had started to put his armor on when he noticed that someone was approaching him. He looked up to find the same Imperial girl from earlier. The one he had pushed out of the way to save from the giant's massive club. She looked quite shy and out of words as she approached him. Up close Nickar could see that she was quite attractive, she looked to be a few years younger than Nickar. Since she seemed to be having a hard time getting hold of words, Nickar decided to start for her.

"I remember you; you were at that farm in the fight against that giant."

The girl blushed a little, "Yeah, I was, that giant would've killed me, but you…you… saved me, thank you."

Nickar smiled as he put the chest piece of his armor on, "Don't worry about it, it was just a reflex."

The girl didn't seem to take this for an answer, "You risked your life to save me, a total stranger; I mean you almost died." When Nickar didn't respond she continued, "I'm Ria, Niro told me about you but I'm afraid I forgot your name."

"Nickar"

"Well are you going to join us, the Companions?" asked Ria.

Nickar let out a little sigh as he finished putting his armor on, "Afraid not, or at least not for a while."

Ria seemed to get a look of disappointment from this, "Oh, well that's too bad, I mean I'm the newest Companion, I was thinking I could show you the ropes."

Nickar sheathed his sword and dagger and slung his satchel over his shoulder, "Well, things don't always go the way you plan." Ria nodded at this.

Nickar was about to walk off when Ria stopped him and gave him a quick kiss on the check. She then proceeded to walk back into Joorvaskr.

After she had left, a bearded warrior in leather armor gave Nickar a mocking whistle. Nickar just waved him off and walked away from Joorvaskr and into the city.

Nickar walked down the steps leading to Joorvaskr; in front of him was a large tree that looked like it had been burned or inflicted some kind of damage. Looking to his right he could see shrine of Talos and a priest illegally preaching in front of it. He could also see the steps leading up to Dragonsreach, the jarl's palace. However before he went up there, he decided wanted to explore the rest of the city first.

Later-

It had been about an hour since Nickar had left Joorvaskr; he had made himself busy exploring the town, talking to people, getting a bite to eat at _The Bannered Mare_, and lastly finding out about a family feud in town between the Grey-Manes and the Battle-Borns. But now, after an hour of procrastination it was time to see the Jarl.

Nickar walked out of the market place and through the wind district. As he did his gaze turned to Joorvaskr, he felt rather guilty about the fight he had gotten into with Niro, even more about the fact that he just stormed out of the hall without giving proper thanks. The frustrating thing was that Niro knew that Nickar would be back to join the Companions, and deep down inside Nickar knew it too. Leaving the wind district he walked up the stone stairway to Dragonsreach.

It took a lot of force to open one of the two massive doorways to the palace. As soon as he walked in, he felt like one of the maids might hit him with a broom mistaking him for dust. The interior was massive, it was mostly made of wood, large pillars ran up to the ceiling for support, and as he walked on the yellow carpet up the stairs, in front of him was a massive fire pit like the one in Joorvaskr. Only the outline of this pit was square and the fire that was lighted went much higher.

To the left and right were two long tables. Nickar could see the jarl sitting in his throne and was about to proceed to him but was blocked by a female Dark Elf wearing leather armor. She stepped in front of him and drew her sword which stopped Nickar dead in his tracks. While the elf made no attempt to attack she held her ground indicating that Nickar was not permitted to walk any further. "What are you doing here? The jarl has important business to attend to that does not need to be interrupted."

Nickar didn't back up or flinch, confident that he had good reasons. "Riverwood calls for the jarl's aid and I have news of the dragon attack at Helgen."

This seemed to completely change the elf's attitude, "Well I suppose that's why the guards let you in. Come, the jarl will want to speak with you."

The elf led Nickar to the jarl who was sitting at his throne talking to some other city officials. The elf tried her best to cut in politely and respectfully. "Excuse me my jarl, but I have urgent news from a man that apparently survived Helgen and can shed some light on the dragon rumors."

All the officials cleared the jarl's throne and made way for Nickar to approach the jarl. Nickar walked up to the jarl's throne and bowed, "Jarl Balgruuf, it's an honor."

The Jarl, like Nickar must not like to be flattered, for he said, "Stand up son, you needn't bow to gain my attention."

Nickar nodded and stood up.

Jarl Balgruuf began to ask questions, "So you were at Helgen, did you see this dragon with your own eyes?"

"Yes, the dragon destroyed Helgen and last I saw it was heading this way." replied Nickar.

The Jarl seemed to get a look on his face that almost said he expected this day to come. "So the rumors are true." He then turned to his right to a man wearing fine clothes, "So what did you say now Proventus, should we continue to trust in the strength in our walls?"

Before the Steward could answer, The Dark Elf housecarl spoke, "My jarl, we should send a detachment of guards to Riverwood at once."

Jarl Balgruuf nodded in agreement, "Yes, I need you to round up a small guard force and send them to Riverwood."

"Yes, my jarl." she then left to go round up some guards.

The steward however, did not seem to be in support of this, "My jarl, if we send troops to Riverwood Jarl Siddgeir of Falkreath will expect us to join Ulfric's side and attack him…"

The steward was cut off by his jarl, "Enough! I will not sit idly by while a dragon is burning my hold and slaughtering my people!"

This seemed to shut the steward up, "Understood my jarl. I think I will return to my duties now." He then walked off leaving only Jarl Balgruuf and Nickar.

The jarl looked pleased, "You sought me out on your own initiative. You have done Whiterun a great service I won't soon forget."

Nickar successfully suppressed a grin, "I was just repaying a debt to a friend in Riverwood."

The jarl smiled at this and looked as if an idea had just popped into his head. "If you're interested I have another job for you." Nickar nodded, "I'm listening." The jarl then stood up, "Alright then, follow me."

The jarl led Nickar from the main hall into a side room that looked to be a wizard's chambers. The room was set up with spell books, soul gems, an alchemy station, and in the back, an arcane enchanter.

Standing on the other side of a desk was a man in cloaked blue mage robes. He looked up from his desk as Jarl Balgruuf came in followed by Nickar. "Yes my jarl, what can I do for you?"

"Farengar, I have someone who can help you regarding your dragon investigations."

This seemed to bring the wizard to life, "Ah, good I've been waiting for this."

The jarl nodded, "I'll leave you two to it then." he then left the room.

The wizard walked around his desk and to Nickar and offered his hand, "Farengar Secret-Fire, court wizard."

Nickar took the wizard's hand in a handshake.

"So you can help me with my investigations into these recent dragon sightings?"

Farengar was different than what Nickar had been expecting from a wizard. He expected to find some grey haired old man smoking a pipe with his nose stuck in a book. But this wizard was different; he looked relatively young in his mid to upper 30s and didn't take five minutes to finish a sentence.

"Yeah, I was at Helgen when the dragon attacked, nasty stuff." said Nickar.

Farengar agreed, "Yes, you must be quite the survivor then. This is why I need you to fetch something for me."

Nickar shrugged, "Sure that sounds simple enough."

Farengar then let out a heavy sigh, "Well when I say fetch, I really mean dive into a dangerous ancient crypt to find a stone tablet that may or may not actually be there."

Nickar let out his own sigh; he had never really liked riddles. "Just give it to me straight."

Farengar smiled, "Straight to the point eh, I like that. Anyway I need you to head to the ruins of Bleak-falls Barrow to find the Dragonstone…"

Farengar was suddenly cut off by Nickar, "Hold it, let me stop you right there." He reached into his satchel with both hands and pulled out the large stone tablet he had found, "Is this what you're looking for?"

Suddenly Farengar's face lit up, "The… the Dragonstone, you found it!"

Nickar handed the stone to the eager court wizard who then after looking at it for a few seconds set it down on his desk. "Thank you; this will help my research very much." Nickar smiled wildly to himself, he knew someone would take that old stone

Nickar felt like he should know why this stone tablet was so important, "So what will you do with the stone, what's next?"

"That is where your job ends and mine begins. As for your reward, go talk to the jarl."

Nickar nodded, "Alright then, it was a pleasure doing business with you.

He was about to leave when a call throughout the palace could be heard, "Farengar!" Irileth, the jarl's housecarl ran into the room. "Farengar, a dragon was spotted near the Western the watchtower!"

When Farengar heard this he hammered her with questions, "A dragon? How exciting! Who saw it? What was it doing?"

Irileth suddenly broke in "Farengar! I'd take this a bit more seriously if I were you, if a dragon attacks the city, we don't know if we can defeat it."

Farengar brought his head down in embarrassment, "Yes of course, my apologies."

"Come the jarl wants to see us." She then turned to Nickar, "You should come to." All three then left the room.

Irileth led the two back into the main hall and up a staircase. The staircase led to the upstairs area behind the main hall. It led to the hall's side balconies, the jarl's courters, and the outside balcony in the backside of Dragonsreach.

Now Nickar, Farengar, Irileth, and the jarl were now standing around a lone guard. The guard wore his golden Whiterun armor and had a great sword strapped to his back. Even though the guard had his helmet on Nickar could tell he was pretty shaken.

The jarl then spoke up, "So, Irileth tells me you came from the western watchtower."

The guard's stance became straighter as he answered his jarl, "Yes my lord."

There was a short silence before Irileth broke it, "Well, tell him what you told me, about the dragon.

The guard then snapped out of his pause, "Ah yes of course. I saw it coming from the south. It was fast, faster than anything I'd ever seen before."

"What did it do? Is it attacking the watchtower?" The jarl asked this with as much patience as he could.

The guard let out a deep breath, "No my lord, when I saw it…it was just circling overhead. I ran as fast as I could…I thought it would come after me for sure." The guard seemed to still be rather shaken up over the dragon sighting.

Nickar understood, but at the same time he didn't. He was attacked by a dragon and had to watch a whole town burn before his eyes and he remembered almost every bit of it despite the trauma.

The jarl sighed, "Good work son, we'll take it from here. Get down to the barracks for some food and rest, you've earned it."

The guard then bowed his head slightly and walked back down the stairs.

Jarl Balgruuf then looked to his housecarl, "Irileth, you'd better gather some guardsmen and get down there."

She nodded, "I've already ordered my men to muster near the main gate; we're ready."

"Good, don't fail me."

The jarl then turned to Nickar who had been completely quiet this whole time, "I'm afraid there is no time to stand on Ceremony my friend, I need your help again."

"Of course my jarl, what do you need?" Despite the fact that it seemed obvious as to what the jarl wanted him to do, Nickar had not expected it.

"I want you to go with Irileth and help her fight this dragon." The jarl seemed to say this as if it were no big deal, as if dragons didn't breathe fire.

Nickar was shocked by this, "With all due respect my jarl, I'm in no position to be fighting dragons!" Nickar tried to put this as delicately as he could. Though Jarl Balgruuf seemed to be a fair man, he didn't want to risk punishment.

The jarl let out a heavy sigh, "I know you've already done a great service for Whiterun and it's unfair of me to ask more of you, but you survived Helgen; that means you have more experience with dragons than anyone else here."

Nickar thought about this for a moment, really the only experience he had with dragons was running away from them, fighting them was a totally different story. However, he had seen the damage these dragons could do. In his time of exploring the city Nickar had met many good people, as well as families, women, and children. These were all innocent people; he would just have to swallow his fear.

"Alright, I'll help."

The jarl smiled, "Thank you."

Suddenly Farengar broke in "I should come along to; I'd very much like to see this dragon."

The jarl didn't seem to like this idea, "No, I can't afford to risk both you and Irileth. I need you here working on ways to defend the city against these dragons."

Farengar looked disappointed but seemed to understand, "As you command."

As Nickar followed Irileth to leave for the western watchtower the jarl stopped them, "I haven't forgotten the service you did for me by retrieving the stone for Farengar."

"Yeah that was really tuff." Nickar mumbled sarcastically.

The jarl then walked toward him with something in hand, "Please accept this gift from my personal armory."

The jarl handed him a helmet, a helmet like the one he had seen the Orc wearing on his trip to Bleak-falls barrow. It was of the same design. It looked to be made of some sort of iron and curved horns came out of the sides.

After looking at it for a moment Nickar put it on his head, it actually fit perfectly on his round head. "Thank you, I'll be sure to give that dragon your regards."

The jarl smiled, "You need not thank me; I should thank you. Just be sure hand that dragon's ass to him." Nickar nodded and left with Irileth.

As Nickar followed Irileth through the city he guessed that the people must know about the dragon sighting. Shop owners were trying to close early, parents went searching for their children in an attempt to bring them inside, and the guards seemed to be becoming more active and alert.

Once Nickar and Irileth had reached the main gate there was a handful of guards waiting for them. They were all dressed in their Whiterun uniforms and carried a diverse arsenal of weaponry. They would definitely need it if it was the same dragon that attacked Helgen.

Despite all their weapons and most likely elite training, they looked rather discouraged. In fact, Nickar could almost hear the light rattle of their chainmail from their shakes. Nickar guessed that Irileth could see this to.

As if they already didn't know what was going on, Irileth decided to tell them anyway, "Alright here's the situation, a dragon is attacking the western watchtower!"

This seemed to excite the guards and they all yelled different things.

"What?!"

"A dragon?!"

"Oh now we're in for it!"

Irileth just stood for a moment before she continued talking to her men. She paced in front of them as she spoke, "You heard right, I said a dragon! I don't much care for where it came from or who sent it, but I do know it's made the mistake of attacking Whiterun!"

One of the guards spoke up, "But housecarl…how are we supposed to fight a dragon?"

Irileth then stopped pacing as she turned to answer the guard, "That's a fair question. None of us have ever seen a dragon, let alone faced one in combat." She then returned to pacing, "But we are honorbound to fight it, even if we fail. This dragon is threatening our homes…our families." She then stopped pacing and stood tall right in front of her men, "Could you call yourselves Nords if you ran from this monster, are you going to let me face this thing alone?!"

Her speech seemed to spark and ember of bravery in their souls. A chorus of "No's" and "No housecarl's" were heard before the final guard said something different. "We are so dead."

Nickar looked to the final guard and chuckled a bit indicating that there was a high chance of death involved. These were Nords at their finest, ready to bravely charge into the face of death with high hearts, sort of.

Irileth then said one more thing, "But it's more than our honor at stake here. Think of it, the first dragon seen in Skyrim since the last age! The glory of killing it is ours, if you're with me! Now what do you say?! Should we go kill us a dragon?!"

All at once all the guards yelled, "Yeah!" Now Irileth, the platoon of guards, and Nickar all ran out the main gate to the western watchtower. As they left the city and ran for the tower Nickar got a feeling, a feeling similar to the one he had at Helgen when the dragon first attacked. A feeling that said this was only the beginning.

Author's notes: Finally chapter six. Sorry it took a little longer for me to update but I've been playing through mass effect 3 in an attempt to reach the citadel DLC. It may be a while longer between updates for now because I'll be getting the new walking dead game soon, and I haven't even started chapter 7 yet. Anyway I hope y'all enjoyed this and I'll try to update as soon as possible, and please, **LEAVE A REVIEW!**

Characters and important subjects:

Kodlak White-mane- Harbinger of the companions, he's old and looking for a successor.

Niro- Nickar's best friend. They grew up together and fought together. After their graduation from the Vanguard program he and Nickar parted ways, but vowed that they would one day break the back of the Aldermarie Dominion.

Jarl Balgruuf the Greater- The jarl of Whiterun, lives in the place Dragonsreach.

Irileth- Jarl Balgruuf's housecarl, or body guard.

Farengar Secret-fire- Whiterun's court wizard.

Proventus- Jarl Balgruuf's steward.

The Companions- The companions are the warrior guild in Skyrim. Their history goes back to the first era to the original 500 Companions. These 500 Companions followed Ysgramor in their conquest to conquer Skyrim from the long extinct Snow Elves.

Joorvaskr- The Companion's mead hall and the oldest building in Whiterun.

Whiterun- The city in the middle of Skyrim. Whiterun was built around Joorvaskr.

Dragonsreach- The Jarl's palace in Whiterun. Legend says that the Nord hero Olaf One-eye trapped a dragon in the palace.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7-Wait, I'm A What?

A group of eight warriors ran along the road through the plains of Whiterun. One of these warriors was Irileth, Jarl Balgruuf's housecarl. Six of them were all well trained Whiterun soldiers, and lastly was Nickar.

After running not too far a distance, Whiterun's western watchtower was in view. Nickar could immediately tell that the sighted dragon must have attacked the watch tower. Smoke rose from the area and large bits of stone had fallen from the tower.

Irileth signaled and led the Nickar and the guards behind some rocks.

"Don't see any survivors yet." said a guard.

"They could just be held up in the tower." replied another.

"Well we won't find anything here behind these rocks." said Irileth. She then drew her sword and turned to the men, "Fan out and look for survivors, but stay in groups of two, that dragon could still be skulking around here."

The horde of warriors started to pass out weapons to each other and group up in pairs. Nickar was handed a large banned iron shield, it was well crafted and solid and true. He was paired with a guard who slid a mace into his belt, slung a quiver of arrows into his back, and grabbed a bow.

The group looked around, but they found only a couple bodies. It was as if the bodies had gone somewhere else or been taken. This perplexed Nickar, "Where are all the bodies? Do you think some got away?" The guard he was with let out a heavy sigh, "Doubt it, in the old legends most who encountered dragons were never seen again." said another.

Nickar and a guard made their way up the broken ramp to the tower's entrance. Suddenly an unmasked guard ran out into the entrance of the tower, a survivor. The guard was crouching and seemed to be in a panic, "What are you doing?! Get down! Logi and Torrek tried to make a run for it but that dragon just came and grabbed them."

Nickar tried to console the frightened guard, "Slow down, what happened?"

Suddenly there was a loud roar and guard went pail, "Oh Gods, here it comes again!"

As if out of nowhere a bronze colored dragon flew out of the sky and was approaching all the guards on the guards. Before anyone could react it flew upon the guards and snatched one from the ground with its sharp claws. It flew back up a ways before dropping the guard to his now inevitable death.

Suddenly Irileth shouted out, "This is it men, make every arrow count!"

Nickar jumped off the stone ramp and watched as the dragon circled above. It wasn't the same he had seen in Helgen, but that wasn't here nor there, it had to die.

Guards fired multiple arrows at the dragon but were having next to no luck successfully hitting their target. Nickar only having a sword and shield was hopeless to do anything.

The dragon then began to approach the ground once again. It inhaled and let out its fiery breath. Most of the guards including Irileth and Nickar managed to evade the attack but two guards were still caught in the dragon's fire and were now burning to death.

Nickar ran over to Irileth, "We're sitting ducks if we can't bring that thing to the ground!"

"Well, how do you suppose we do that?" screamed back Irileth.

Nickar got a puzzled look on his face, "Well don't ask me, you're the long living and wise elf! I'm just a poor Nord boy that barely knows his homeland!"

The dragon was seen again flying around the watchtower. As the dragon began to approach the group again Irileth shot sparks of lightning from her left hand which seemed to cut off its next attack.

"We'll just have to keep it at bay! Eventually it will have to come down here and get its hands or whatever it has dirty!" said Nickar

Around them guards were doing their best to stay in safe positions to avoid the blasts of fire. The Dragon once again closed in for another attack, but this time when it reached its destination it hovered above the ground looking for its targets.

Seizing the opportunity Irileth ran out into the open and shot more sparks at the dragon while the guards fired several arrows at the beast. Most of the arrows hit and sunk in to their target but did very little in actually penetrating the dragon's scales.

Taking damage from multiple targets the dragon left its hovering position and continued to fly through the sky.

"We hit it!" yelled one of the guards.

"Save your feelings of triumph soldier, the fight still goes on!" screamed back Irileth.

All of the warriors waited for the dragon's next attack. But no one could see it nor hear its heavily flapping wings and loud violent roar. It was as if the dragon had retreated. Everyone left their cover places and came into the open.

The guard who had spoken earlier looked over to Irileth, "You were saying, housecarl?" he said sarcastically.

Irileth looked displeased but before she could say anything the dragon landed right smack in the middle of everyone knocking them off their feet. Nickar quickly sat up and looked at the dragon. It was the closest he had been to one since Helgen.

The guard who had mouthed off earlier quickly got up and raised his sword but didn't get far before the dragon picked him up and held him in its jaws. It swung its head around a few times before spitting the now dead guard out.

Nickar and the remaining warriors began to charge the dragon. Irileth slid right under its belly and slashed at it forming a wound on its belly. The dragon groaned as it was attacked from all sides by its enemies. One guard thrust large axe into one of its wings while Nickar rammed into its head with his banned iron shield. The dragon realizing it was actually in danger, ascended into the sky.

"Good work men!" yelled Irileth.

Nickar regrouped with Irileth, "I've got an idea!"

"What is it?"

Nickar looked over to the watchtower, "I'm going up there, get it to land next to it!"

Irileth looked puzzled, "What are you doing?"

"I don't know yet, just get it next to the watchtower!" He then ran off towards the watchtower entrance having not the slightest idea what he was going to do.

Once again, the dragon began to hover over the guards below it. They took cover to avoid the flames that were being fired upon them. Irileth shot more sparks at the dragon which caused it to fly on. Guards continuously shot arrows at the dragon.

Nickar finally reached the top of the watchtower, just in time to see the dragon descending to land right next to the tower. When it did land it caused the ground around it to shake. The remaining guards on the ground except for Irileth were knocked off their feet. Above at the top of the tower Nickar was standing on the edge but suddenly fell off when the ground shook due to the dragon's landing.

Irileth, who was standing bravely in front of the dragon was just about to get fried when a small figure landed right on the dragon's head, it was Nickar. He had dropped his shield on landing and was now hanging on to the horns on the dragon's head. The dragon did not like this at all, it snapped several times in an attempt to remove the annoyance from its head.

The now recovering guards seized this opportunity to once again fire their arrows at the dragon. For once the well shot arrows did some real damage to the dragon. Nickar who finally got a firm grip on the dragon pulled himself up on its head and stabbed his sword directly into the right eye of the dragon. A loud roar of pain came from the as it desperately tried to shake Nickar off of its head.

Ironically, Nickar wasn't enjoying this anymore than the dragon was. The constant shaking and threat of being thrown off was beginning to make him feel sick. Nevertheless he took his sword again and jammed it into the dragon's head hoping to reach the brain.

The dragon let out another roar of pain as Nickar pulled back his sword. The guards on the ground continued to attack the dragon, this time with their swords. The dragon was helpless as it was vigorously attacked from all sides. Nickar finally cracked the dragon's skull and stabbed into the dragon's brain once more which finally brought it down. The dragon limply fell to the ground followed by its neck and head which Nickar tumbled off of.

The guards all back away from the now slain dragon. As Nickar stood up he found out why. The dragon's body was beginning to disintegrate and glow gold as some sort of energy gave off of it.

"What's happening?!" asked one of the guards.

"Everyone stay back!" ordered Irileth.

Before Nickar could move way, the energy from the dragon began to flow around him and into him. It gave the same sensation he had felt before in Bleak-falls Barrow when he approached that wall. As more energy flowed from the dragon to Nickar the less of the dragon's scaly skin remained. The energy continued to flow until all that remained of the dragon's body were bones.

Once all the energy had been absorbed into Nickar, everyone was silent. Finally one of guards broke the silence, "I…I can't believe it, you're Dragonborn!"

Nickar got a puzzled look on his face, "Dragonborn, what do you mean by that?"

"You mean you don't know?" the guard asked with surprise. "In the very oldest tales, back from when there were still dragons in Skyrim, the Dragonborn would slay dragons and steel their power. That's what you just did no, absorb the dragon's power?"

Nickar felt extremely confused, the question seemed too abnormal to answer. "In all honesty I have no idea what happened to me or this dragon."

"There's only one way to find out, try to shout. In the old legends, only the Dragonborn can shout like the dragons do without training."

Nickar became even more confused, "I really don't understand what you're asking me to do."

Another guard then walked up, "Dragonborn, what are you talking about?"

"That's right, my grandfather used to tell stories about the dragonborn." said the first guard. After a short pause he continued, "Those born with the dragon blood in them, like old Tiber Septim himself."

The second guard, who had removed his helmet to reveal a bearded face, looked puzzled. "I've never heard of Tiber Septim killing any dragons."

The first guard turned to him with a rather aggressive tone, "There weren't any dragons then idiot, they're just coming back now for the first time in… well forever!"

He then turned back to Nickar, "Either way the old legends say that a dragonborn could slay dragons and steal their power, you must be one."

Nickar was still having trouble wrapping his mind around this, "Look, I really have no idea what the fuuuuus!" Nickar's words were interrupted by a thundering shout that knocked the guards in front of him to the ground.

When the first guard got back to his feet he exclaimed, "Dragonborn…it…it is you!"

Nickar was in even greater disbelief, "Wait, how did I do that?"

The second guard then spoke up, "You just don't get it do you? You are Dragonborn."

A third guard then spoke up, "What do you say Irileth? You're being awfully quiet."

Irileth just scoffed, "Hmph, some of you would be better off keeping quiet than flapping your gums on matters you barely understand."

She then walked over to the dragon's bones, "Here's a dead dragon, and that's definitely something I understand. Now we know for sure that we can kill them."

She then slightly raised her voice as if she were scolding children, "But I don't need some mythical Dragonborn, someone who can put down a dragon is more than enough for me."

The first guard just waved her off, "You wouldn't understand housecarl; you ain't a Nord."

Irileth then seemed to get an offended look on her face, "I've been all across Tamriel, and I've seen plenty of things just as outlandish as this. I'd advise you all to trust in the strength of your sword arm, over tales and legends."

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of a whining horse galloping down the road. On its back was a guard who stopped the horse by what remained of the group.

The guard then hopped off and spoke, "Housecarl, the jarl wants to know of the situation here."

"Thank you soldier." said Irileth who then turned to Nickar. "You should go tell the jarl, take this horse."

Nickar nodded, recovered his shield, and hopped on the horse. Before he rode off, he let out a heavy sigh.

"What is it?" asked Irileth

Nickar chuckled, "Nothing, just seems like I gotta do everything these days."

"I'm just glad you're with us." said Irileth.

Nickar just nodded and then rode off.

On the horse ride back to Whiterun Nickar went over everything he knew. 'So the dragons can be killed, that's good.' 'I may be something called a dragonborn, aw crap getting that feeling again.' Nickar didn't have much time to dwell on his thoughts, for his horse was approaching the city walls.

Once his horse stopped he quickly hopped off and approached the gates.

"You from the watchtower?" yelled a guard.

"Yeah" was all that Nickar said before the gates opened and he ran in.

Inside the city there was a bit of a panic. By now everyone must have been aware of the dragon attack and were still trying to prepare for an attack on the city. Nickar ran up the city road but was stopped by Niro who ran up to him."

"Hey, what's going on? I heard something about you going out with some guards to fight a dragon." he said.

Nickar tried his best to explain what happened, "I was sent by the jarl to help his guards kill a dragon at the western watchtower, its dead now."

"Why'd he send you, why not get the companions?"

Nickar suddenly remembered that he hadn't told Niro anything about Helgen and the dragon attack. "I was at Helgen; I saw the one that attacked."

Niro suddenly became louder, not angry, just shocked, "Well why the hell didn't you say something about that before?!"

Nickar scoffed, "I don't know; it just slipped my mind!"

Niro chuckled, "By the nine, how the hell do you forget about a dragon attack?!"

Nickar started to laugh at the question, "Man you know me."

Niro just sighed, "Hey well at least the things dead now."

Nickar suddenly remembered the other details, "Yeah strange story about that."

"What do you mean?"

"It turns out I may be something called a Dragonb…."

Suddenly a large clap of thunder erupted from the evening sky. It made the ground shake and it sounded almost exactly like the thundering noise he heard when the dragon attacked Helgen. The thunder was almost immediately followed by loud words that echoed through the sky, "Do-vah-kiin!" Then another clap of thunder erupted and then the sky was quiet.

Everyone just stood still, men women, and children. They all seemed completely paralyzed over what just happened.

Nickar then started to run to Dragonsreach. "I gotta go I'll talk to you later!" He then ran off and left a very confused Niro standing in the street.

Dragonsreach-

The jarl sat at his throne thinking over what he had just heard. He couldn't believe it, for the first time since Tiber Septim, the Greybeards had just called for the Dragonborn. The voice of his body guard Hrongar interrupted his deep thinking, "My jarl?"

Jarl Balgruuf turned his attention back to Hrongar, "The Greybeards." He said this almost as a whisper.

Hrongar, wasn't quite sure, "You really think the return of the Dragonborn…the dragon blood…has come."

Balgruuf sighed, "Brother, what else could it be, you heard the shouting."

"Yes, you're probably right." said Hrongar.

Balgruuf was in complete aw over the situation, "The Greybeards"

The conversation was interrupted by Proventus, the jarl's steward, "Excuse me my jarl, he's back."

Nickar walked past Proventus and approached the jarl and gave him a slight bow.

"So what happened at the watchtower, was the dragon there?" asked Balgruuf.

"There's not much left of the watch tower, but we did kill the dragon. You're housecarl is still there with a handful of guardsmen."

Balgruuf let out a sigh of relief, "Good, I knew I could count on you two." He then paused for a moment but then continued, "Something tells me that there's more to it than that."

Nickar became puzzled but then decided that he was referring to the shouting, "Well when the dragon died I…" Nickar decided to get straight to the point, "Turns out I may be something called a Dragonborn."

A look of surprise crossed Balgruuf's face, "Dragonborn, what do you know about the Dragonborn?"

"Right after we killed the dragon I absorbed some kind of power from it." said Nickar.

The jarl now looked completely stunned, By the Gods, it's true; the Greybeards really were summoning you.'"

Nickar had never heard that name before, "The Greybeards?"

"They're the masters of the Way of the Voice. They live in seclusion on the slopes of The Throat of the World."

Nickar took a moment to scratch his head which was no longer covered with the horned iron helmet, "So these Greybeards are summoning me? What do they want with me exactly?"

"The Dragonborn is said to be uniquely gifted in the voice-the ability to focus your vital essence into a Th'um, or shout." said Balgruuf.

Nickar still didn't understand, "What does that mean?"

"It means that if you really are Dragonborn, they can teach you how to use your gift."

Hrongar then spoke up, "Didn't you hear the thundering sound as you approached Whiterun?"

"No I didn't?" Nickar said sarcastically.

Hrongar seemed to just put this matter to the side, "Either way that was the voice of the Greybeards summoning you to High Hrothgar. This hasn't happened in… centuries, at least. Not since Tiber Septim himself was summoned when he was still Talos of Atmora."

Proventus then cut in, "Hrongar, calm yourself. What does any of this Nord nonsense have to do with our friend here? Capable as he may be, I see no signs of him being this, what, 'Dragonborn'."

This statement aggravated Hrongar, "Nord nonsense?! Why you puffed up ignorant…" His anger made his voice drift off but he then continued, "These are out sacred traditions that go back to the founding of the First Empire!"

Before Hrongar could say anything else, Balgruuf broke in, "Hrongar please, don't be so hard on Avenicci."

Proventus then sighed, "I'm sorry, I meant no disrespect of course. It's just… what to these Greybeards want with him?"

"I though we've established that." said Nickar.

Balgruuf then turned to Proventus, "That's they Greybeards' business, not ours." He then looked to Nickar, "Whatever happened when you killed that dragon, it revealed something in you, and the Greybeards heard it. If they think you're Dragonborn, then who are we to argue?"

Nickar just shook his head, "Alright, but what of I'm not this Dragonborn they were calling?"

"Nevertheless you should get up to High Hrothgar immediately, there's no refusing the summons of the Greybeards. It's a tremendous honor." He then seemed to disconnect for a moment as if going through memories but then began to talk again, "I envy you, you know. To walk the 7,000 steps again…I made the pilgrimage once myself. Did you know that?" High Hrothgar is a very peaceful place. It's very…disconnected from all the troubles of this world. I wander if the Greybeards even notice what's going on down here with the war and all. They haven't seemed to care before. Eh, no matter, go to High Hrothgar and learn what the Greybeards can teach you."

Nickar bowed slightly, "It was an honor to work for you my jarl." He then turned to walk away.

Before he got very far, Jarl Balgruuf stopped him, "You've done many great services for my city, Dragonborn. By my right as jarl, I name you Thane of Whiterun. This is the greatest honor that is within my power to grant.

"I'm sorry my jarl, but what exactly does that mean?"

The jarl just laughed, "Ah yes, I've been told that you weren't really from Skyrim, sometimes I forget. You can have Lydia fill you in on all of the perks of being a thane."

Nickar had never heard that name before, "Wait, who is Lydia?"

"She's your new personal housecarl."

"You're giving me a housecarl?!" Nickar was out of words after hearing this. Throughout his life Nickar had never really felt much luxury, so getting a housecarl was definitely something new. Though what he heard next shocked him even more.

"Yes, along with a new fully furnished home within the city."

Before Nickar could say anything stupid he decided to just accept these gifts and be off, "My jarl, your generosity is much appreciated."

"We are honored to have you as thane of our city Dragonborn, and don't worry, I'll inform my guards of your position. Lydia is waiting for you at the palace's entrance."

Nickar bowed, thanked him once again, and then walked off.

As Nickar approached the large doorway, he noticed Nord a woman in a set of steel armor. She had long brown hair and an attractive face. She looked to be around the same age as Nickar and was about an inch shorter. She had a steel sword sheathed on her belt and held a steel shield on her left arm. When she saw Nickar she walked up to him, "I'm Lydia; the jarl has appointed me to be your housecarl. It's an honor to serve you."

Nickar took her hand in a handshake, "Nickar, good to meet you. Is it ok if I ask you some questions?"

Lydia nodded, "Certainly my thane."

"I'm a thane, what does that mean?" he asked.

Lydia then got an excited look in her face, as if she was happy to explain, "The jarl has recognized you as a person of great importance, you'll have access to many resources owned by Whiterun and guards will know to look the other way if you tell them who you are.

Nickar liked the sound of that. Really, he never had any real trouble with the law, but situations like Helgen had opened his eyes to these things a bit more. He then asked another question, "What is your job as a housecarl exactly?"

"I'm at your every command; I'll guard you and all you own with my life."

Nickar chuckled, "We'll I'll do my best to make sure it doesn't come to that."

He got a slight smile from Lydia, but otherwise she kept a straight face.

After a moment of silence Nickar continued, "So can you help me get to my house?"

Lydia smiled, "Breezehome, yes, please follow me."

Breezehome-

Lydia led Nickar into his new home. It was small but nevertheless a good home. Just like the jarl promised it was fully furnished, there was a small cooking area, a large table in the back, an alchemy station, and upstairs were Lydia's room and Nickar's room.

Nickar smiled, "Pretty nice place."

Lydia nodded, "Yes my thane. Would you like me to do anything for you, like prepare dinner?"

"Thanks but I'll handle it, you can relax."

This surprised her, "Are you sure, my thane?"

Nickar began to unload his equipment, "Yeah thanks. Got to learn how to cook somehow right?"

Lydia bowed, "As you wish, thank you my thane."

She began to walk upstairs to her room but was stopped by Nickar, "You know you don't need to keep calling me that."

"As you wish my tha…" She caught herself, "What should I call you?"

"You know, just by my name, Nickar." he said.

"As you wish…Nickar."

"Nickar suppressed a laugh, "Eh, you'll get there."

Lydia also began to laugh, "Thank you, I hope so." She then walked up the stairs to her room.

Through the evening and night Nickar tried to make himself something to eat. He was close to making something, but calling it food may have been a bit too complimentary. He also sent a courier to Joorvaskr to see if Niro could come and visit. He got his answer at about ten o clock when Niro walked through the front door.

He looked to Nickar who was busy over the cooking pot, "So what are you making?"

Nickar chuckled, "Honestly, I have no idea."

Niro laughed, "Yeah, you always were an improviser."

Nickar stopped to take a break, "So how's the town been since they heard of the dragon attack?"

"Well rumors of the dragon attacks across Skyrim are definitely getting out, and I guess if you saw one and killed one, they're real." said Niro.

Nickar nodded, "They're there alright."

Suddenly Niro spoke up, "Oh yeah before I forget, I found a few things you left behind in Hammarfell." He reached into one of his pockets and found something and lightly tossed it to Nickar.

Nickar caught it and looked at it. It was a necklace with a cross-like symbol on it; this was his old amulet of Talos. He had wandered where this had gone, "Thanks I could never find out where that went." He then put it on.

Niro then presented a mini alter with all the symbols of the Nine Divines on it. "You left this too."

Nickar then looked at his mini alter that Niro placed on a small table, "Let me guess, this was right next to the amulet."

Niro chuckled, "Yeah."

Niro then presented an armor piece that Nickar had never seen before. It was definitely light; it was mostly made of hide but was studded with steel of some sort. It was sleeveless just like the iron armor Nickar had.

"This is a gift from the companions. It may be light and not protect as much as what you already have but it's blessed with restoration magic." said Niro

Nickar took the armor and weighed it in his hands; he defiantly was pleased with the fact that it was blessed with restoration magic. He then looked to Niro, "Thanks this is nice, be sure to thank your friends at Joorvaskr for me."

Niro just nodded.

There was a short period of silence before Niro broke it, "So what's this about you being a Dragonborn?"

Nickar shrugged as he walked back over to the cooking pot, "Yeah apparently I might be one." He then paused, "Well honestly…I'm not sure if it's real or not."

Niro chuckled, "Sounds like you're scared to find out the truth."

Nickar scoffed, "Well what do you know about it? Please, enlighten me." That last part was said with complete sarcasm.

Niro sighed, "Not much. All I really know is that all the emperors in the Septim Dynasty were all Dragonborn."

Nickar then began put whatever it was that he cooked on a plate, he then turned to Niro, "You want some?"

Niro shook his head, "Thanks but no thanks Mr. Gourmet." He struggled not to laugh at this.

Nickar just waved him off but then returned to the topic of the Dragonborn. "The jarl told me that it was the Greybeards who were making that shouting noise. They were summoning the Dragonborn apparently."

Niro sat down in one of the chairs around the fire and cooking pot, "Yeah I figured, Tiber Septim was also called to the throat of the world when he was suspected to be Dragonborn."

"So you're saying that I should go climb the 7,000 steps to High Hrothgar?"

"Even if this is just some mistake, there's no refusing the Greybeards." said Niro.

Nickar laughed, "No argument there."

After talking for a bit longer Nickar introduced Niro and Lydia to each other. It became awkward when Niro attempted to flirt with her until Nickar kicked him out and said his goodbyes to him.

Nickar went to bed at around twelve o'clock, but before he got in bed he set his small alter on the floor and got down his knees in front of it. He closed his eyes and began to pray. He spoke in no more than a whisper.

"_Divines watch over thy loved ones with a ready sword and shield. All else is shadows and dust. May thou blessed nine watch over me as I journey through my dangerous homeland. No matter what is layed out before me I promise thee to stay strong and do my best to live with the dignity you have taught me. Talos guide me, may the 9 divine Gods guide me._"

Authors Notes:

Hey, I'm so sorry it took over a month to get another chapter on the site. I've just had a lot on my mind lately. I thank those of you that have found and read this story for being patient about the wait. Anyway I hope the next chapter will come out sooner than the last.

Characters and Important topics:

Lydia- The Dragonborn's first housecarl, she comes from Whiterun.

Hrongar- Just another bodyguard hanging around Dragonsreach.

The Dragonborn- A mortal with the blood of a dragon and the ability to learn and speak shouts without training. In the past, starting with Tiber Septim or Talos, all the emperors in the Septim Dynasty were Dragonborn, until the death or transformation of Martin Septim.

The Septim Dynasty- The long line of Dragonborn emperors starting with Tiber Septim and ending with Martin Septim.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8- The Way of the Voice

Lydia watched amused as Nickar stood transfixed on the sight before him. The Throat of the World, the tallest mountain in Tamriel. He stared at it as if he had never seen the mountain before, but of course he had, just not so close up.

Nickar and Lydia had arrived in the small village of Ivarsted, where the steps to High Hrothgar began, the following the night. The town was rather quiet and really only consisted of a few buildings and houses. They had spent the night at the inn and were planning on climbing the 7,000 steps this morning.

Lydia, who decided that she should probably make sure her thane was still breathing tried to get his attention, "Umm… my thane."

Nickar snapped out of his gaze and turned to his housecarl, "What'd I tell you about that."

Lydia suddenly put on the straightest face she could, "Oh yes…forgive my thane…wait no…dammit."

Nickar just laughed, two days on the road with him and she still couldn't learn to stop referring to his as "my thane." So far Nickar was quite happy with having his housecarl, but he never really thought of Lydia as a servant, but as a shield-sister, and hopefully later she would learn to call him friend.

As Nickar got his gear together Lydia became curious, "Excuse me my…" she caught herself, "why do you not like me to call you…well…you know what?"

Nickar chuckled, "Lydia to be honest there's nothing that says I can't be friends with my housecarl."

Lydia was puzzled; this was different from any other situation she had been in with any of her past thanes. "Well what exactly can I do to help with that?" she asked.

Nickar sighed as he picked up his large shield, "Just don't feel that as my housecarl, you have to blindly follow me, just be there for me when I need it."

Lydia smiled, "I think I can do that." She then picked up a pack of supplies that someone in the village asked them to deliver to the Greybeards, "Are we ready to go?"

"Yeah", said Nickar who then got a rather conflicted look.

"What is it my thane?" asked Lydia.

Nickar just rolled his eyes while Lydia lowered her head in shame.

Finally Nickar found his words, "I was just thinking and I realized that it may not be appropriate to bring you up to the Greybeards' monastery."

Lydia got an offended look.

Nickar noticed this, "I didn't mean it like that, I…"

Lydia just laughed, "I know what you meant."

"Good", he said awkwardly.

She then passed over the pack of supplies to him, "Here are the supplies; I'll wait for you at the inn." She then stepped back and for whatever reason saluted, "Good luck."

Nickar thanked her and crossed the bridge to begin the 7,000 steps up. In all honesty, Nickar was a little nervous about going to see these Greybeards. When he asked the townsfolk about High Hrothgar he seemed to repeatedly hear that the Greybeards could kill a person with a single whisper. Nevertheless, he began.

1 hour later-

Nickar had no idea why but as he took each step up he mysteriously wanted to go back down. It was most likely the altitude. It was also starting to snow and get a little colder the further he went up. Towards the bottom when he first started he ran into a hunter who was taking part of the pilgrimage up. He had met a few people so far that were only taking part of the pilgrimage; they all seemed to be praying in front of alters that one by one told how the "Way of the Voice" came to be.

Nickar stopped and sat down for a minute to have some of the food he had packed for the trip up. Searching through his bag he found a couple of carrots, a chicken leg, and a sweet roll. He had just taken a bite from one of the carrots when he heard some howling. He quickly looked further up the stairs to find three wolves now slowly approaching him.

"Shit", he quietly cursed to himself. He then raised his shield and pitted it right in front of him. His shield was made of hard iron and was large enough to crouch behind it. This was useful considering he now wore light armor.

One of the wolves ran at him snarling and showing its sharp canine teeth. As soon as it leapt, Nickar pushed forward with his shield and stunned the wolf. He then quickly grabbed his sword from the ground and slashed right at the wolf's face killing it instantly.

The other two wolves sensed the danger and began carefully circling their prey. Nickar waved his sword around trying to scare them off, this wasn't working. One of the wolves stopped circling and then charged, the other followed. Nickar quickly swung his shield and bashed one of the charging wolves, knocking it away. The other was introduced to his blade as it buried itself into the wolf's skull. The stunned wolf got up and quickly leapt for its distracted prey.

Nickar, who noticed this to late was almost pounced by the wolf, but stopped it right at the last minute. In his sudden panic when he saw the wolf leap at him he shouted, "Fus" pushing the wolf off the side of the mountain.

Nickar took a minute to catch his breath. He had finally figured out how to intentionally shout. This was a relief to him considering where he was going. Now eager to reach the top he continued his climb.

He didn't get very far until a large troll with white fur was blocking the way. It was a frost troll. Coming from the deserts of Hammarfell, Nickar had never seen a frost troll before. However he had heard the stories, and they didn't lie. It stood at least six feet tall, had muscles that were beyond intimidating, and worst of all it looked like it was hungry.

Nickar drew his sword, raised his shield, and slowly approached the troll. Right now it seemed to be doing some ape like war dance where it jumped up and down and occasionally raised its arms and roared. Nickar could tell by the way that it was looking at him that it was trying to figure out what he tasted like.

This was one of the many things Nickar had been trained for. It was almost a fact that a warrior's specialty is troll slaying. He was trying to stay calm and not let the stress take over. His breathing was steady as he inhaled the cold Skyrim air. His strong Nordic blood flowed through his veins; the warm blood that would prevent him from freezing.

Nickar suddenly felt his blood pressure spike as the troll began to charge at him. It took its claw like hand back and swiped at its prey with all its might.

Nickar, who was waiting for the perfect, moment swung his shield into the troll's approaching claw, delivering a powerful bash into its entire right side.

The troll staggered and had no time to react before Nickar's sword stabbed through the middle of its eyes and into the brain. The troll went completely limb almost immediately. Nickar just stood still for moment before he slowly pushed against the troll's body with his boot as he watched his sword slide out of the beast's head.

Nickar took a moment to catch his breath. He hadn't expected the battle with the troll to be over so quickly. He didn't have much time to think about it before he felt the air grow even colder. He then hurried up the rest of the path to High Hrothgar until he could see the monastery in view. The building was obviously ancient, as it was made of dark stone. The monastery looked almost like a fort up front, and its high location on the side of a mountain would make it quite defendable.

Nickar approached the monastery to find the chest the man in Ivarsted was talking about. He took the sack up supplies and put it in the chest. Looking around he found to separate staircases that led to two separate doorways into the monastery. Deciding that which doorway he took was irrelevant, he entered the monastery.

Nickar entered the monastery. It was just like the outside, completely made of stone. It was very quiet; in fact the only sound that could be heard was the faint sound of the strong mountain breeze. Looking up Nickar saw two banners hanging from the high ceiling. They looked similar to the characters on the shout wall. They must be other letters of the dragon language.

After standing in the empty room for a while Nickar turned around and to his surprise discovered that he wasn't alone. Standing behind him was an old man in grey robes and a hood with a thick beard.

The fact that this old man had just snuck up on him did not please Nickar, "Ah, Gods, you scared the shit out of me."

The old man said nothing and just nodded.

Nickar decided to explain why he was here, "I'm answering the summons that you sent."

The ageing man just nodded again and didn't say a word.

Nickar was puzzled, "You know, that thundering noise you sent through the sky."

Still, the old man just nodded but stayed completely silent.

Nickar was beginning to feel nervous and even a little threatened. It showed as he slowly slid his hand down to the hilt of his dagger. He was about to pull it out when an old voice sounding of wisdom and experience filled the room.

"You may sheath your weapons; I assure you he means no harm. If he did, well he would've spoken."

Nickar turned to find 3 more men in grey hooded robes walking down a small staircase. They were all old men with grey beards. The name 'Greybeard' suddenly made sense to Nickar.

Of the three men approaching, the one in the center was the only one to walk directly up to him. This old man looked to be in his late seventies and had a beard that formed somewhat of a ponytail.

He eyed Nickar for a moment before speaking, "So… a Dragonborn appears, at this moment in the turning of the age."

Nickar nodded, "I'm answering your summons."

"Ah yes, show us Dragonborn, let us taste your voice." said the old man.

Nickar noticed that all four of the men were sort of lining up side to side. He felt rather strange about using the shouting power against these old men, but then remembered that they had done this before. Nickar let out his voice, "Fus!" The force knocked the men back and left them rather staggered.

After a few uncomfortable groans, the first old man regained his composure and filled his eyes with wander. "Dragonborn, it is you. Welcome to High Hrothgar." He then slightly bowed as he introduced himself, "I am Master Arngeir; I speak for the Greybeards."

Nickar was confused, "What do you mean you speak for them?"

Arngeir seemed to look to each of the three Greybeards before answering, "We Greybeards are masters of the dragon tongue; however that does not mean we are the masters of our own tongue." He paused for a moment before continuing, "Constant study of the voice and dragon words has made speaking in a normal tongue rather… alien." He then pointed to the first Greybeard Nickar had seen when he had first entered the monastery, "If Master Einarth had so much as whispered to you, well we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Nickar shuddered at what he had just heard. The thought of never being able to talk for fear of destruction made him feel sorry for these old men. He nodded indicating he understood before he asked another question, "How are we speaking then?"

"I have studied and learned to control my voice which makes it my responsibility to be our speaker." said Arngeir with complete humbleness in his voice.

Nickar nodded, "I understand."

Arngeir took a deep breath before speaking, "Tell me Dragonborn, why do you come here?"

"I'm answering your summons, master."

Arngeir seemed to smile a bit at this answer, "We are honored to welcome a Dragonborn to High Hrothgar. We will do our best to teach you how to use your gift in fulfillment of your destiny."

There was always a catch to any gift, wasn't there? "Well, what's my destiny?"

"I'm afraid that is for you to discover. We can show you the way, but not your destination."

"I think I understand. I'm ready to… well whatever you called me up here to do."

Arngeir nodded, "Ah yes, you have shown that you are Dragonborn. You have the inborn gift." He then paused and went deep into thought before he continued, "But do you have the discipline and temperament to follow the path laid out before you? That remains to be seen."

Nickar chuckled, "I guess we'll find out."

Arngeir brought his chin up, "Indeed, now let us begin." He began to walk toward the middle of the room where there were some stone tiles on the floor arranged in a diamond shape. "Without training, you have already taken the first steps in projecting your voice into a Th'um, a shout."

Nickar, just noticing that his helmet was still on took it off and followed Arngeir to the diamond shape in the floor. "So, good start then?"

Arngeir didn't answer, "Now let us see if you are willing and able to learn."

Nickar noticed that all four of the Greybeards were placing themselves at each corner of the diamond shape in the floor. He took his place at Arngeir's corner next to him.

Arngeir inhaled before he begun the lesson, "When you shout, you speak in the language of dragons. Thus, your dragon blood gives you an inborn ability to learn the words of power.

Nickar nodded, indicating he understood.

Arngeir then continued, "You see, all shouts are made of three words of power. As you master each word, your shout will become increasingly more powerful." He then pointed to another Greybeard that was standing on the corner to his left, "Master Einarth will now teach you "Ro", the second word in unrelenting force."

"Ro?" asked Nickar.

"Ro means balance in the dragon tongue. Combine it with "Fus"- force, to focus your Th'um more sharply."

The Greybeard Einarth then stepped forward and whispered to the stone floor, "Ro." A light force left his mouth and made its way to the stone tile. A cracking sound was heard and two characters of the dragon tongue appeared one the floor.

Nickar wasn't sure what to do so he just approached the word. He focused on it for a bit and then found that it was in his head.

Arngeir must have sensed this because he began to speak, "You learn a new word like a master… you truly do have the gift."

Nickar turned back to Arngeir, "Well, what's next?"

Arngeir let out a slight chuckle, "Patience Dragonborn, learning a word of power is only the first step. You must unlock its meaning through constant practice in order to use it as a shout." He then paused for a moment before continuing, "Well, that is how we learn the words of power. As Dragonborn, you can slay a dragon, absorb its life-force, and learn its knowledge directly."

Nickar finally understood, "So that's what it means to be Dragonborn then, the ability to take knowledge from dead dragons."

Arngeir nodded, "Yes, but be warned Dragonborn, it is a gift of great power and great power must not be abused."

"I understand."

"Good." Arngeir pointed back at Einarth, "As part of your initiation, Master Einarth will allow you to tap into his understanding of Ro."

Einarth nodded and a similar energy began to glow around him and Nickar was allowed to use the knowledge to understand Ro.

Once the initiation was done Arngeir spoke up, "Now let us see how quickly you can master your new Th'um."

Everyone then turned to the diamond shape in the floor. Nickar wasn't sure why but he felt it was the next step.

Arngeir stood next to him and began with the instructions, "Shout at the targets as they appear."

Nickar nodded and watched for the first target to appear.

A Greybeard walked closer to the diamond shape and shouted, "Fiik Lo Sah!" The spot that was shouted upon began to distort for moment then in its place stood a spectral form of a Greybeard.

Nickar then shouted, "Fus Ro!" The force came from his mouth and struck the spectral target with greater fore force than Fus would have done. The target then disappeared.

Arngeir nodded his approval, "Well done, again."

The Greybeard shouted another target and Nickar shouted it back down again.

Arngeir nodded again, "You learn quickly, once more." Nickar smiled to himself for he could hear the impressment in his voice.

The cycle continued once more and when he was done Nickar turned back to Arngeir who was looking at him with amazed eyes. "Your Th'um is precise, you show great promise Dragonborn. Your next trial awaits you in the courtyard." He then pointed to yet another Greybeard, "Follow Master Borri to the courtyard."

This Greybeard then began to climb up some stairs and walk to some distant back doors. The rest of the Greybeards followed him along with Nickar.

Once outside Nickar looked to the sky, even though the sky was filled with the cold and snow filled wind he could tell it was night. As he continued to walk with the Greybeards through the courtyard he rubbed his head, the high altitude of the highest mountain in Tamriel was giving him bit of a headache.

The courtyard was very large. Due to the freezing cold there were no plants, just snow and the stonework that was scattered across the yard. Toward the end of the yard was a large stone tower. Close to that was a pathway that must go further up all the way to the mountain's peak.

Nickar's eye exploration was interrupted by Arngeir's wise voice, "Now let us see how quickly you learn a completely new shout." Nickar looked around; all the Greybeards were standing around him.

Arngeir continued, "Master Borri will now teach your 'wuld', which means whirlwind."

Nickar then looked to the Greybeard Borri who then whispered the word, "Wuld." The word's characters found their way into the snow covered ground.

Nickar crouched on the ground and tried to focus on the word. In a few short seconds it came to him, he knew it but didn't quite understand it.

He then turned to Arngeir who directed him to the man next to him, "Master Borri will grant you his understanding of wuld."

Just like before the Greybeard let off an energy that found its way to Nickar. This gave him the understanding of wuld.

Arngeir then led everyone to a gate, "Now as your final test we will see how quickly you can master a new shout."

They all reached the gate and Arngeir continued, "Master Borri will open the gate, Master Wulfgar will demonstrate whirlwind sprint, and then it will be your turn."

Nickar nodded and Borri walked to the Gate while Nickar and the rest stood next to two pillars at least 10 feet in front of the gate.

Everyone was quiet for a moment; Wulfgar readied himself in front of the gate.

Arngeir then spoke up, "Master Borri."

Borri then shouted, "Bex!" The gate then opened and Wulfgar shouted, "Wuld Nah Kest!" The effects of the shout were unbelievable, the Greybeard moved faster than any mortal eye could see. Nickar saw him suddenly appear on the other side of the gate which closed almost immediately.

Arngeir then turned to Nickar, "Your turn."

Nickar nodded and positioned himself in front of the gate.

Borri shouted again, "Bex!"

Nickar then acted as quickly as he could, "Wuld!" Nickar watched as it seemed like the whole world flashed in front of him. His vision was completely blurred until he found himself standing next to Wulfgar.

After the gate closed he walked around it back to Arngeir who was looking at him with eyes of wonder, "Your quick mastery of a new Th'um is… astonishing. I'd heard stories of the abilities of the Dragonborn, but to see it for myself… simply remarkable."

Nickar smirked, "I'm still not entirely sure how it happens."

Arngeir nodded, "Do not worry Dragonborn, in time you will see, but for now you will begin your final trial."

Nickar clapped his iron covered hands in excitement, "Alright what's next?"

Arngeir went straight to the point, "Retrieve the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, our founder, in his tomb in the ancient fane of Ustengrav. You can find the tomb deep in the marshes of Hjaalmarch, near its capital, Morthal."

"I'll get the horn." agreed Nickar.

"Good, remain true to the Way of the Voice and you will return."

Arngeir and the other Greybeards began to walk back into the monastery but Nickar stopped Arngeir for a moment. "I'm sorry Master Arngeir, but before I go I have some questions."

"Of course, what is it Dragonborn?"

"Why are the dragons coming back, does it have something to do with me?"

Arngeir nodded, "There is no question that the return of the Dragonborn alongside the return of the dragons is no coincidence. The Gods must have some purpose in store for you, just keep to the path of wisdom and it will present itself."

"I understand, but I have one more question."

"Speak Dragonborn"

"Who was Jurgen Windcaller?"

Arngeir sighed, "Well that's a long story, but I suppose it is important for you to understand. Back in the earliest of days, dragons ruled Nirn with an iron fist. It was the suffering of both men and elves that caused the Gods, Kynareth in particular to take pity on men. She then gave mortals the ability to speak in the ancient dragon tongue. With this power, men were able to overthrow the dragons, but at a cost. Mortals began to abuse this power. One of these ancient heroes was Jurgen Windcaller. In a battle at the Red Mountain of Morrowind the armies of the Dwemer and Chimer alliance annihilated Jurgen Windcaller's army. Jurgen spent years pondering how the Gods could allow him to suffer such a defeat, but then finally found an answer. He came to believe that the defeat at Red Mountain was punishment from the Gods for men's abuse of the Th'um. From then on out he declared that the voice should only be used to honor the Gods, not for the glory of men. From that moment, the Way of the Voice was born."

Nickar had been listening intently the whole time despite how late in the night it was. He then bent down his head, "I will try to remain true to the way of the voice."

Arngeir smiled, "You are a wise young Nord, but do not neglect your gift, for Akatosh's gift of the Dragon Blood and Kynareth's gift of the voice was meant to be used and appreciated, just not abused."

Nickar nodded, "I understand."

Arngeir bowed slightly, "Sky guard you, Dragonborn."

Author's Notes: Ok all things considered, this was probably the most boring chapter I've made so far. However it's also a very important chapter if you want to know more about the Dragonborn. Anyway, y'all be sure to correct me on anything that you see is wrong like that history lesson on the end. I think I'm using pretty reliable sources, but there's always that chance. **PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW OR SIME INDICATION THAT YOU ARE READING. Thx y'all.**

Characters and important topics:

Arngeir- He is the Greybeard's speaker and somewhat of their leader, but he's not at the same time. You'll see later.

Other Greybeards- It's pretty self-exclamatory.

Jurgen Windcaller- He is the founder of the Way of the Voice and was an ancient Nord hero who suffered a major defeat in his conquest at Red Mountain at the hands of the Dwemer and Chimer.

Red Mountain- Is the largest volcano in Tamriel that has so far erupted twice in the history of Tamriel.

Dwemer- The Dwemer, also known as "Dwarves", "Deep Elves", or "Smart Elves" were a race of reclusive underground dwelling elves that were masters of engineering, mathematics and magic. Though they are extinct today, some scholars claim that at one point they were looking into powers to rival the Gods themselves.

Chimer- The Chimer were a group of High Elves who were banished from the Summerset Isles for committing Daedra worship. They left the Summerset Isles and made their new home in Morrowind. They then came in contact with the Dwemer. At first the two races were able to live in peace but they soon raged war against each other for the control of Morrowind. The Chimer constantly prayed to their Daedric Lords but no prayer was answered. They began to worship the first Tribunal, which according to Dark Elves today that Tribunal was false. But at the battle at Red Mountain the mountain erupted and from the ashes the Chimer were transformed into the Dummer or Dark Elves. After this eruption the Dwemer disappeared leaving the Dark Elves the rulers of Morrowind. 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9- Laid to Rest

It had been a cold and restless night. Once Nickar and had come back down from High Hrothgar he and Lydia immediately managed to catch a carriage that was on its way west. The driver agreed to drop them off in Morthal, for 50 septims.

Lydia was surprised at how much money Nickar had. When she asked him about it he told her about all the bandit camps he had to go through and how Bleak-falls Barrow was teaming with gold and valuables. Lydia smiled at the thought, being an adventurer definitely had its advantages.

Right now it was early morning and Lydia had just woken up. Nickar however was still sleeping soundly. She had a hard time understanding how Nickar could sleep through the constant noise of the carriage. She had only managed to get a few hours of shut eye. Nickar hadn't told her much about why they were heading to Hjaalmarch except for the fact that the Greybeards wanted him to find some lost horn of theirs. Another thing that puzzled her a bit, if the Greybeards' shout could be heard from all over Skyrim and maybe Tamriel, why did they need a horn.

Lydia's train of thought was cut off when she heard the horse start to nervously neigh. The driver at the reins became concerned, "Whoa steady girl! What's wrong, you smell something?"

The man was then suddenly impaled with an arrow. Nickar was still asleep and the arrow was so quiet that Lydia didn't even notice until the horse began to loudly whine and break into a fast run. This was finally enough to wake Nickar. "By Shor, what in Oblivion is going on?!"

Before Lydia could answer the carriage went over a large bump in the road which knocked both Nickar and Lydia off. They rolled tumbled and rolled in the snow for a bit before they came to a stop.

They quickly got up to their knees but no further. A group of bandits had surrounded them and were pointing daggers and swords at them. A tall bulky Nord approached Nickar and put a dagger to his throat, "Give us everything you have you milk drinker!"

Nickar wasn't amused, "Get that thing out of my face and go home to your mother!"

"Umm… my thane." Lydia looked over to Nickar with concerned eyes, though she did her best to keep a strong face.

A Dark Elf chuckled, Look at this boys, we got ourselves a hero. They all laughed for a moment before the Dark Elf turned to the large Nord. "What we gonna do with them, hey boss?" This must have been their chief or something.

The Nord formed a sinister smile, "I think we should gut this tough guy over here, and maybe take this one over here back to camp. Another bandit then got behind Lydia; this one was another Nord, "I bet she'd be nice in my cot back home. Ain't that right sweet heart?"

Nickar could see the fear in her eyes, yet she kept such a strong face. Whether she was scared or not, Nickar wasn't having it. "You'd best back off!"

"The chief laughed whatcha gonna do, cry for you and your little whore here?"

Nickar sighed, "Just remember you made me do this. Fus Ro!"

The force of the shout knocked the bandit flat on his back. All the other bandits just looked at him with utter shock. In the confusion Lydia jammed her elbow into the stomach of the bandit behind her who coughed and gagged at the unsuspected attack. She then quickly got up unsheathed her sword and spun around decapitating the man.

Nickar locked the Dark Elf's arm in a trap as he tried to stab at him with his dagger. He then kicked the elf in the gut and brought out his own dagger and stabbed it into the crumpling elf's spine. He then turned to see the large bandit chief get up. The chief threw his dagger to the ground and took a large claymore off of his back.

Lydia brought up her shield as a Khajiit swung down with two curved swords. She then pushed throwing the cat off balance and slashed to the left which was parried by the cat, but before the cat could attack, Lydia brought up her left foot and kicked the cat right in the in the upper leg. He crumpled to the ground and barely had time to watch as Lydia thrust her sword into his heart.

Nickar jumped back as the claymore swung hard into the snow. Before the chief could pick it up, Nickar stepped on it and pinned it the ground. Acting quickly the chief let go and punched Nickar in the temple knocking him off his sword and to the ground. Nickar groaned in pain, he hadn't expected to be such force in the punch. Noticing the chief raising his large sword for the killing blow, he quickly shouted, "Fus!" The chief staggered and Nickar got to his knees and unsheathed his sword. The large claymore was swung down and blocked by Nickar's smaller sword. When the chief raised the claymore to swing again Nickar stayed low and twirled around cutting into his opponent's knee. The chief groaned in pain and fell to one knee. He was then pummeled in the face by the pummel of Nickar's sword. Finding himself on his back again, the bandit coughed when Nickar put his iron boot against his armored chest.

The chief was in shock, these two warriors had killed all of his raiding party and now he was next. Nickar stood above him with eyes that said I told you so.

"Any last words before I send you to the Gods?" asked Nickar.

The chief just tried to spit in his face.

Nickar then thrust his sword through the steel armor and into his chest, killing him instantly.

Regaining his composure Nickar flicked his wrist in an attempt to get the blood of his sword. Lydia then walked up behind him and gave him his shield; he had dropped it when he fell of the carriage.

"Thanks Lydia." he said.

Lydia chuckled, "Good morning my thane."

Nickar returned the chuckle, "Yeah nothing like a bloodbath in the morning."

Lydia, walked up ahead of him and looked off into the distance, she couldn't see very far ahead due to the snow storm. She then turned back to Nickar, "I guess we'll have to walk the rest of the way."

Nickar started walking past her, "I guess we don't have a choice." He then stopped and took a bite from an apple in his satchel. Seeing the starved look on Lydia's face he grabbed another apple and tossed it to her. "Can't have you starving."

Lydia smiled and took a bite, "Thank you."

Nickar took another bite out of his apple as he walked around trying to figure out where he was. He then looked to Lydia, "While I was asleep did the carriage driver say anything about where we were?"

She nodded, "Yes, we arrived in Hjaalmarch a couple of hours ago. Last thing he said was that we were about a mile away from Morthal." She then took another bite of her apple.

Nickar then pointed down the road, "Better get going then."

In about half an hour Nickar and Lydia arrived in Morthal. It was a quiet little town, somewhat eerie, but what would you expect from a town that lives so close to a marsh. As soon as they arrived they could see some townsfolk gathered in front of the Jarl's palace making complaints.

It wasn't eight yet, so most people wouldn't be up and working quite yet. Nevertheless there were about three Nords complaining to the Steward. Nickar could tell that this must have been hard for Steward.

"So what's the jarl going to do about it?" asked one of the people.

"How are we supposed to feel safe in our own homes?" asked another.

The steward tiredly sighed, "Please enough already! I've told Idgrod of all of your concerns; she'll look after you all. Now please go about your business."

"We have no need for wizards in our mist!" a man shouted.

"Morthal has enough problems as it is!" exclaimed another.

At this point the Steward was walking back into the jarl's hall and ignoring the shouting.

One of the local Nords scoffed "Bah it's no use; let's get back to it then." All of the townsfolk that were gathered just sighed or started angrily grumbling and walked away."

"Is there some kind of trouble in Morthal?" asked Lydia.

"Don't know." said Nickar. "I'll ask one of the townsfolk."

Nickar then walked up to a black bearded Nord who was on his way to the town sawmill. "Excuse me, my friend and I just came into town and we couldn't help but notice that rally in front of the Jarl's hall."

The Nord turned to face him, "Are you asking what's wrong with this town."

Nickar just nodded.

The man chuckled, "What ain't wrong with this town, strange noises have been heard coming from the marsh, that wizard Falion sits in his house doing Gods know what, and what does the jarl do? She just sits in her palace with her visions."

"Visions?" asked Nickar.

The man frowned, "Yes, our jarl claims that she can see and commune with mystical spirits."

"Well, what's wrong with the town wizard?"

The man almost laughed, "You can't be serious, the jarl granted him a home in the town, but yet he keeps his research very discreet. If you ask me, he's up to something."

Nickar sighed, "Don't you think that may be a bit pre-judgmental?"

The man let out his own sigh, "Look, Morthal was supposed to be a quiet place where people didn't have to deal with the troubles of this land like this this civil war. I own the mill here and it's all I care about. I'm not going to let the jarl do nothing as the peace of this town is taken from us."

"I'm sorry if I offended in any way." said Nickar.

"The man sighed, "No I'm sorry, I'm just concerned." He then offered his hand, "Name's Jorgen, like I said I run the mill."

Nickar took his hand, "Nickar." He then turned to Lydia, "My friend and I are headed to Ustengrav." He then turned back to Jorgen, "Do you know how we can get their?"

Jorgen shook his head, "Afraid not, but as much as it pains me to say… that wizard Falion might know."

Nickar nodded, "Thanks we'll ask him."

Nickar and Lydia walked to Falion's house. His house and a few others were lined up on a boardwalk since part of Morthal was built over a body of water that led to the marsh. Falion's house, like most others was small and made of wood and straw. When they entered the house they found s Redguard dressed in blue mage robes leaning over an arcane enchanter. He seemed to sigh as he saw Nickar and Lydia enter.

Before either of them could say anything Falion seemed to suddenly lose his temper, "If you stand before me of sacrificing children or eating the hearts of the dead then you may save your breath!"

Nickar was puzzled, "Umm…"

Falion still continued, "I have done no such thing nor do I intend to! I simply wish to live my life in peace!"

Before the irate wizard could continue Nickar interrupted, "We're not here to accuse you of any of that; we just got into town a few minutes ago."

The wizard got a very embarrassed look on his, "Oh… well good. I'm sorry, it's just that the people of Morthal would rather assume and fear my history then simply ask me for the truth."

"Well what do you do around here?" asked Nickar.

"I'm a wizard, I study conjuration. Since conjuration can be sometimes linked to necromancy, the people of Morthal simply assume that I wish to make them my undead servants."

Nickar awkwardly scratched his head, "I can see how they can out the two together."

Falion angrily shook his head, "Look, if you and the rest of this town want to fumble in your ignorance then you are free to so, but it won't change what's true!"

Nickar raised his hands in defense, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend. We're actually here to ask you if you can help us find Ustengrav."

Falion then suddenly burst to life in the way all wizards, mages, and scholars do when they hear of an ancient ruin, "Ustengrav… you mean that tomb in marshes?"

Nickar nodded, "Yeah but that's all I've been told. I don't know the specific spot and I've been told that the swamps of Hjaalmarch reach all the way into Haafinger."

Falion nodded, "Well you've heard right my friend."

Lydia who was leaning against a wall cracked opened the door and looked outside. When she closed the door she got a curious look, "What's wrong with that house out there next to the jarl's hall."

Falion looked past Nickar and at her, "That one? It was burnt down even before I arrived here so it's the one thing that I haven't been blamed for."

"What's the story behind it all?"

"I don't know much about it other than it was Hroggar's house and that it burned with his family inside." said Falion.

"That's horrible!" exclaimed Lydia.

Falion then scratched his chin, "If you want to find out more, the jarl wants someone to look into the house, but everyone around here is to superstitious."

Nickar shrugged, "Might as well."

Lydia nodded and they both left the house leaving Falion once again alone. He sighed and leaned over a table to read a scroll. Some soft footfalls walking up the stairs from the basement broke his concentration. He looked over to the stairs to find his adopted daughter Agni. "Yes Agni what is it?'

She ran over to the door and looked outside, "Was someone just here?"

Falion went back to reading the scroll, "Yes someone came to talk to me."

"Who?"

Falion smiled, children always had questions and wanted all the answers at once, "Oh no one, just some folk who I think this town needs."

Nickar and Lydia walked into the jarl's hall to find her sitting in her throne at the other end of the hall. Before they reached her however, a Nord in the same studded armor as Nickar approached them, "While you're here, no disrespect if Jarl Idgrod will be tolerated. Are we clear?"

Nickar nodded, "Alright, but why would I disrespect the jarl."

The Nord sighed, "It's no secret the Jarl Idgrod has her visions, but nonetheless she is still Jarl of Hjaalmarch and is to be treated with the upmost respect."

Nickar nodded, "We aren't here to cause trouble."

"The Nord nodded, "Good, names Gorm, Jarl Idgrod's housecarl. You may approach the jarl."

Nickar stepped up to the jarl. She was an older woman with dark hair and black eyes. She was dressed in fine clothes. When she saw Nickar and Lydia she sat up straighter in her throne, "Ah visitors, it's good to have newcomers to the town every now and then."

Nickar gave a slight bow, "Thank you, I understand you have visions."

The jarl sat in silence for moment, "It is true, the Divines do reveal things to me at times, and Morthal is a place of great magic."

Lydia looked into another room to find an Imperial Legionnaire and a few other Imperial soldiers huddled over a map. She then nudged to show Nickar who then looked over and saw them. He then turned back to the jarl, "I take it Morthal is under legion control."

Jarl Idgrod nodded, "Yes it is, but nevertheless my loyalties lie here in Morthal. Now is not the time to fight amongst ourselves, I fear Dark days are approaching and all of Skyrim's strength will be needed."

Nickar decided to get straight to the point, "I hear you want someone to look into that burnt down house."

"Yes the house belonged to Hroggar and his family. Hroggar blames his wife for spilling bear fat in the fire, however many folk in town blame him for it."

"You mean kill his own family, why would he do that?" asked Lydia.

Idgrod sighed, "Lust, the ashes were still warm when he pledged himself to Alva."

"Who's Alva?" asked Nickar.

"Just a woman who spends time around the tavern a lot, she's considered to be the town seductress in town." said Idgrod.

Nickar nodded, "Yeah that definitely is suspicious; I'll look into the house and get to the bottom of this."

The jarl nodded, "Hroggar's fate is in your hands."

They then walked out of the jarl's hall and walked to a boardwalk to its left, the boardwalk led to the burnt down house. Nickar could tell that even when the house was still standing it wasn't much to look at. The base was square and it was only one floor by the looks of what was left of it. They had just crossed the boardwalk and passed the entrance when they heard a child's voice, "Hi there."

Both Nickar and Lydia looked to their left to find a body of a young girl. What shocked them most was that they could see through the child's body, almost as if it wasn't there. They then both looked at each other. "Lydia, you see the little girl ghost to… right?"

She just nodded and Nickar cleared his throat, "Can you tell me who you are?"

"I'm Helgi, but papa says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. Are you a stranger?"

Nickar chuckled trying to be careful with the conversation, "No we're friends. Is Hroggar your father?"

"Yes Hroggar's my daddy. Are you sure you aren't a stranger."

Nickar sighed, "No we're friends."

Lydia then spoke up, "Do you know what happened to your house?"

"The smoke woke me up, I was hot and I was scared… so I hid. Then it got cold and dark, I'm not scared anymore. But I'm lonely" she seemed to be looking down at the ground in sadness. She then looked back up, "Will you play with me?"

"If we do will you tell me who set the fire?" asked Nickar.

The ghost seemed to smile, "Okay let's play hide and seek, you find me and I'll tell you."

"Deal" said Nickar.

The ghost then looked disappointed, "Wait, we have to wait until nighttime. The other one is playing to and she can't come out until then."

"The other one?" uttered Lydia.

"Who's the other one?" asked Nickar.

Helgi's ghost started to look around like she was worried, "I can't talk now she might hear me; she's so close."

"Wait, who is?" Nickar asked desperately. It was too late, the ghost of the young girl was now gone.

"Should we go tell the jarl?" asked Lydia.

Nickar nodded, "Probably."

They left the house and began walking down the boardwalk when a woman in a low cut tavern dress stood in their way. Nickar could guess who it was already. "So I hear you're looking into the fire, it's too bad about Hroggar's family."

Nickar stared a cold stare, "You Alva?"

She nodded, "That I am." She then looked around, "This town is boring and it's about time something exiting happened."

"What do you mean?" asked Nickar.

Alva then put on her best smile, "You're the most interesting person to come here in a while; I hope you can spread some excitement across this dull old town."

Nickar allowed himself to chuckle, "I'll do my best."

Alva then began to walk away making sure to show as much of her back as possible, "I'll see around handsome."

Once she was a safe distance away Lydia spoke up, "Can see why she's the town seductress."

Nickar laughed, "Let's go see the jarl."

They ran back next door to the jarl's hall and told her everything. She just sat for a moment to process it all but then found her words, "Yes, the spirit world is strong in Morthal."

"She asked me to find her." said Nickar.

"The jarl thought for a moment, Look to the graveyard when night comes, you should find her spirit there."

"Thank you my jarl" said Nickar before he and Lydia turned to leave.

Once they were outside Lydia looked concerned, "It's not even noon yet what we gonna do all day."

Nickar looked off into the marsh for a moment; he could understand why nobody would want to go into those parts. He then turned to Lydia, "Well multitask, let's see if we can get Falion to lead us to Ustengrav, that outta pass the time."

Authors Notes:

Ok I'm sorry if there are a lot of mistakes in this chapter. I'm going on vacation tomorrow morning and I kinda had to skim through all of this. Anyway I hope you like the chapter, keep reading and keep reviewing.

Characters and Important Topics:

Morthal- Capital city of the Hjaalmarch hold in Skyrim.

Hjaalmarch- Just a hold in the province of Skyrim that contains the vast marshlands.

Jarl Idgrod- Jarl of Morthal and Hjaalmarch hold.

Falion- The wizard in Morthal that is looked down upon and feared since he studies conjuration magic, or the summoning of creatures from Oblivion.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10-Multitasking

The marshes of Hjaalmarch were just about as eerie as the stories told. Nickar had noticed mudcrabs near small streams of water and large spider webs hanging from moss covered trees. Nickar didn't really feel fear as others did, but he could see why no one would want to travel through the marshes like he, Lydia, and Falion were doing now.

Prior to finding out that they couldn't find Helgi's spirit until nightfall, Nickar and Lydia asked Falion, the town wizard if he could lead them to Ustengrav. He agreed, and was now leading the two adventurers through the treacherous marshlands of Hjaalmarch hold.

"Watch your step, the ground isn't very solid here." Falion said back to his two followers.

A large insect began fly and buzz around Lydia. She swatted at it but it kept avoiding her armor covered arm. "Damn bugs." she said in a frustrated voice .

Up front Falion chuckled, "If you're having problems with mere bugs out here then we should just turn back now."

"Why, what kinds of things live out here?" asked Nickar.

"I don't know for certain but I saw a werewolf out here one night." said Falion.

Nickar had heard of Werewolves that wander Skyrim's wilds at night, he didn't want to see one for himself, "So we should try to be done with this before nightfall then."

Falion didn't answer the question, "It's not too much further now."

Lydia let out a gasp as she kicked a small mudcrab that was snapping at her feet, "Good can't take this Godsforsaken swamp anymore."

Nickar took a step into large puddle in which his boot sunk. He was surprised to see a small fish with sharp teeth bite at his leg. When he groaned in pain Falion looked back at him, "Careful some slaughterfish sometimes make their way out here."

"Thanks for warning." said Nickar with an annoyed voice.

Falion ignored the gesture and kept walking, not particularly worrisome of if Nickar and Lydia were keeping up. After a bit longer of walking through the marsh they finally reached the ancient ruin of Ustengrav. Its entrance was burrowed in a chamber that began a few feet underground. The stonework and material was almost identical to Bleak-falls Barrow.

Nickar looked over to a few wooden tents and bedrolls, "We ain't alone here."

Lydia walked up next to him, "Who else would be out here."

Suddenly from behind a stone pillar a Breton man in fur armor with an iron mace appeared. It was clear he was a bandit, but most bandits were much more aggressive. This one was almost like a zombie. His eyes were full of nothingness and it looked like the body was being held up by some magical force.

The bandit went on the attack, it went for Falion. It swung the mace but Falion saw it in time and threw himself to the ground. Nickar then brought out his sword and parried the bandit's next attack. From the ground Falion let out a flame spell on the bandit. It definitely burned the bandit to death but there were no cries of pain. The bandit's burnt body hit the ground with a thud. It lay still for a moment before it began to disintegrate until it was only a pile of ash.

"Necromancers!" exclaimed Nickar.

"Yes" Falion groaned as he got to his feet. "Some mages passed through town recently, I feared that they might be necromancers."

"Why not mention that earlier?" Lydia asked.

Once again Falion avoided the question, "If the two of you want to be back in town by nightfall, I suggest we keep moving. He then walked down some spiraling stone steps to the entrance of the ruin.

Nickar went to follow him but Lydia stopped him, "Forgive me my thane, but I don't know if I trust him."

Nickar sighed, "I know, but he's our only shot at getting that horn."

"What if he's leading us into some trap down there?"

Nickar almost laughed, "Ain't that what I got you for?"

Lydia smiled, "Indeed, I will protect you with my life."

"Are you two coming?" yelled Falion who was standing next to the tomb door.

Nickar sighed, "Yeah, we're coming." And so forth the adventure through yet another ancient crypt began.

When they first entered the crypt there was a downward tunnel that ked into a wide open area. When they reached the open area they're fears of not being alone came true. At the other side of the room some necromancers were raising the corpses of fallen bandits. Falion put his finger to his lips to signal silence and led Nickar and Lydia behind a large stone pillar.

The necromancers seemed to be talking about their resurrections. "These fools seem to get dumber and dumber each time we raise them, this one can hardly swing a pickaxe." said a males voice.

"Feel free to pick one up and give them a hand, I prefer not to burden myself with manual labor." said a female's voice. Nickar smirked at the voices, they were your typical mages, snobby, cruel, and too proud to think of how unethical their acts were.

Regardless of where he grew up, Nickar was a Nord at heart and believed that the dead should be honored and treated with the utmost respect. Even when it came to the most brutal marauders, he believed that the least you can do for your enemy after he's dead is let him rest in peace.

Suddenly, from deeper inside of the ruin was the sound of clashing blades and magical spells being fired. The necromancers took notice of this, "What was that?" asked the female voice. "They must have found trouble!" said the male's voice. They then both dressed in their black mage robes ran down another tunnel leading further down into the ruin.

Nickar, Falion, and Lydia then got up from behind the pillar. "So I guess you were right about the necromancers." said Nickar.

"Yes" Falion grunted, "These crypts can be filled with varieties of ore, and more of the dead to mine it." The last part was said with utter sadness.

Lydia began to angrily grumble, "What they're doing is wrong." She then pointed over to a resurrected bandit, he had a pickaxe in hand and was mining at an ore vein against a wall.

Nickar then walked over to the bandit, "We can't leave him like this." He unsheathed his sword and just stood right behind the bandit. The raised dead man didn't even seem to be aware of the surroundings around him. Nickar then quickly stabbed him in the back. Before the body turned too dust whatever life was left in the body whispered, "Thank…you."

Falion then walked toward the next tunnel, "We should move on." They then all continued down the passage. Walking down the tunnel they found the dead body of a female Altmer dressed in black mage robes. Another Necromancer around the corner was firing flames into a corridor at some draugr who were hacking away at another necromancer. These were the mages they had just seen.

When the necromancer still alive saw the three new approaching people he panicked, "Who are you?!" Out of pure horror of the enemies closing in around him the necromancer fired an arc of lighting at the trio. Falion counteracted by firing an ice spike into the bolt of lightning.

Before the necromancer could let lose any more magic he was charged by a group of draugr. The draugr then turned to attack the other intruding people. One draugr charged at Falion with a large axe. Nickar countered by bringing up his shield and blocking the axe, while Lydia worked around it and thrust her sword into the draugr's chest.

The last two draugr were dispatched rather quickly when Falion launched a fireball at one killing it and stunning the other, and Nickar twirled around with his sword and cut the last one down.

Once the group regained its composure they looked into the next room, the ground was littered with the bodies of dead draugr and a few necromancers. Falion entered the room and kicked at one of the dead bodies, "We hopefully shouldn't run into any more trouble from this point on."

Nickar chuckled as he walked ahead with Lydia following, "This was only hardly the first wave; there are more down here somewhere."

They then continued through the ruin, running into more draugr, doing their best to avoid traps, and collecting any gold and valuables they found along the way. They then found their way into a massive cavern. It was lit up with light from the surface coming through small holes in the cavern's ceiling.

Lydia was marveling at the sight, "I've never seen anything quite like this before."

"Yeah you definitely don't see that every day." said Nickar.

Falion was already walking down deeper into the cavern. They followed him down deeper until they found the bottom of the declining path. Nickar began to hear whispers in his head again, the same whispers he heard in Bleak-falls Barrow. Nickar turned to find another shout wall.

Lydia turned to see her thane just staring at some strange writing on a white curved wall. "My thane… is something wrong?" There was no answer, he just walked closer to the wall.

Falion looked to Nickar and then gave Lydia a concerned look, "What's wrong with him?"

Lydia shrugged, "I don't know, I was just recently assigned to be his housecarl." She then rubbed her chin deep in thought, she supposed there wouldn't be any harm in revealing who Nickar really was. "He's Dragonborn, would that have anything to do with it."

Falion then lit up, "Oh Dragonborn, I take it he was the one the Greybeards were calling."

Lydia just nodded, still watching her thane.

Nickar then turned around and began to walk back to the group, "Sorry, did someone say something? I had to concentrate on a new word, between that and all the whispering I can't hear much."

Falion looked unhappy, "I wish you had told me you were Dragonborn sooner."

Nickar shrugged, "Just didn't seem necessary to tell you."

Before Falion could retort some strange creaking footsteps began to approach.

Lydia unsheathed her sword and readied her shield, "What's that?" Walking down some wooden steps were… bones. Two literal walking skeletons were running toward them, one held a rusted sword, the other was wielding a war axe. The cringing sound of their creaking bones could be heard.

Nickar almost chuckled, "This is new."

Falion began to prepare a spell in his right hand, "I've seen this before." He then unleashed a small fireball into one of the skeletons which completely shattered when hit. The other one charged Lydia with its sword. Almost effortlessly, Lydia brought up her shield stopping the attack and simply shattered the skeleton with a downward slash.

Nickar suppressed a laugh, "Good work."

Falion then once again led on, "This way."

The group continued on through the ruin until they opened a gate and finally reached the central chamber. The chamber was full of water on the sides but in the middle was a path that led to the end of the chamber where some sort of rectangular stonework sat. Nickar thought for a moment, 'Could that be Jurgen Windcaller's grave?' As they entered the chamber on both sides of the path two large stone structures rose from the water. They all braced themselves, expecting trouble.

"I got a bad feeling about this." expressed Lydia. When they were all sure nothing was going to happen they began to approach the other side of the chamber, Nickar in the front.

The stonework at the end had been beautifully crafted and deeply expressed. There seemed to be a dragon head on each corner as well as a stand in the shape of a hand in the middle that was supposed to hold the horn they were looking for. Though the closer they got the more concerned Nickar became, for it was not a horn that lay on the stand but a folded piece of paper.

Nickar then began to whisper, "No… no… no, no, no, no! His voice became louder each time he uttered the words.

Falion didn't understand, "What is it, what were you looking for?"

Nickar fell to his knees and put his head in his hands in stress. "A war horn… for the Greybeards." His voice was little more than a mumble covered by his hands.

Lydia sighed, "I guess it's just not here anymore."

Nickar then stood back up and kicked the stonework. "Gods damn it." His rage almost startled the others. After he had taken a few minutes to calm down he turned to Falion, "Thanks for getting us this far I guess."

Falion nodded, "Your welcome. I don't mean to state the obvious but maybe that piece of paper will tell you something."

Suddenly Nickar felt like a complete idiot; he had been so caught up in not finding the horn that he hadn't paid any mind to the paper.

Lydia then spoke up, "That's what I was thinking, but I didn't want to mention it."

Nickar looked puzzled, "Why not?"

Lydia tried her best to look innocent, "I didn't want to embarrass you, my thane.

Nickar just scowled and unfolded the paper, it was a note. It was no coincidence that the horn wasn't there, whoever took it had been expecting him.

_Dragonborn—_

_I need to speak with you urgently._

_Rent the attic room at the sleeping giant inn in Riverwood, and I'll meet with you._

_-A friend_

"What's it say?" asked Lydia

Nickar stuffed the note into his satchel, "Whoever took the horn is in Riverwood. They want to meet me there."

Lydia looked concerned, "It could be a trap."

"Or not." Nickar quickly retorted

"So Riverwood it is then."

Nickar nodded and began to look around, "Where's Falion?"

Before Lydia could answer Falion appeared from behind a corner, "Over here, I found a way out of the tomb. With that they both followed him outside and walked back to Morthal. Once they arrived they said their goodbyes and Falion returned to his home. It was late evening when Nickar and Lydia found themselves standing in the middle of the town with nothing to do.

"Do you think we can look for Helgi's spirit in the graveyard now?"

Nickar shook his head , "Not until after everyone goes home or to the inn or something."

They waited until everyone had begun going inside. After grabbing a quick bite to eat they headed up into the graveyard to find a dug up coffin. It was just about the perfect size to hold a child in. Nickar signaled to Lydia to be quiet and then bent down next to the coffin and softly tapped it, "Helgi, you in there?"

The voice of the child's spirit revealed itself, "Please… make Laelette go away!"

Nickar tapped the coffin again, harder this time. "Slow down, who's Laelette?"

He suddenly heard Lydia scream behind him. The scream was full of panic and distress. Behind him Lydia was on the ground helplessly fending off an attacker in black robes and a cloak.

Nickar acted quickly and tackled the attacker. Though whoever the attacker was, was very strong and Nickar suddenly felt himself being easily overpowered as he was thrown over the attacker's shoulder. Nickar lay in the snow for a moment before the assailant came after him with lighting speed.

Nickar found it odd that he seemed to be keeping the attackers head away from his neck and face. Why not just kill him? He couldn't reach for any weapons, it took both of his arms to keep the attacker off him. If he relieved one hand to grab a weapon it would leave him completely vulnerable.

He counted his blessings when Lydia grabbed the attacker from behind and pulled them off. They stumbled and fell to the ground knocking the attacker's cloak off which revealed the face of a female Nord. She had short brown hair, pale skin, piercing reddish eyes, and two sharp fangs.

Nickar thought for a second, Falion was right, the 'other' Helgi spoke of was a vampire. The vampire lunged at Lydia again, Lydia brought up her shield to stop the attack. It worked, but the vampire went feral and grabbed the shield and tossed it away with ease. Nickar got hold of his dagger and attacked the vampire from behind. The vampire's super natural instincts warned it and it quickly spun around and avoided the dagger attack and hit Nickar with a powerful uppercut knocking him back.

The vampire then turned back to attack Lydia, but it was too late. Lydia had unsheathed her sword and quickly swung cutting deep in to the vampire's stomach. It screamed in pain and backed away clutching at its injured stomach. It was so focused on Lydia that it was oblivious to a recovered Nickar walking up behind it. He kicked the vampire to the ground and bashed its head in with a fist sized rock.

Out of breath, Nickar let himself fall to the ground. He sat for a moment before Lydia walked over to him and offered her hand. He took it and Lydia helped him get to his feet. "Thanks" he said.

Lydia smiled, "I should thank you; you saved me."

He chuckled, "So did you."

Lydia's smile brightened, she was happy that her thane seemed to need and appreciate her. They then both walked back over to Helgi's coffin and Nickar put his hand on it again.

"You found me!" The spirit of the young girl seemed to be much happier now. "Laelette was trying to find me too, but I'm glad you found me first. Laelette was told to burn mommy and me, but she didn't want to." Her voice was becoming much more filled with despair. "Laelette thought she could take me and keep me, but she can't, I'm all burnt up. She wanted to play with me forever and ever. I'm tired I'm going to sleep now."

Helgi's voice spoke no more. Lydia sighed and looked over to the vampire's body, "I'm guessing that was Laelette."

Nickar stood up, "Who else?"

Before Lydia could speak, one of the townsfolk ran up to them with a torch in hand. "What's going on? I heard screaming and…" He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the vampire's body, "Laelette… oh no!" He ran up to the corpse and kneeled beside it, "Oh my poor wife, she's dead." His eyes then widened, "By Ysmir's beard… she's… she's a vampire."

Lydia looked down at the ground in sorrow, Nickar walked up behind the man and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry about your wife."

The man then stood up, "She's dead. Laelette is dead."

"What's your name?" Nickar asked.

The man sniffed, trying his best to stay strong. "Thonnir"

"I'm investigating the house fire. Do you know how this could have happened?"

"She left one night to join the war effort, a vampire must have gotten her in the marsh."

"Did you notice anything suspicious before she disappeared?" asked Nickar.

Thonnir stood and thought for a moment, "She began to spend a lot of time with Alva, yet just a week before she despised her."

"Seems odd." said Nickar. He then thought for a moment, "Did she go somewhere the night she disappeared?" he asked.

Thonnir nodded, "Yes, the night she disappeared she was supposed to meet Alva. When I asked Alva about it she said that Laelette never made it."

Nickar sighed and looked over to Laelette's corpse, "I think they may have met after all."

Thonnir's eyes widened at the statement, "Ye Gods! You think Alva is also a vampire?"

Nickar held up his hands as to show what was around them, "It's definitely possible, look at what's happened. Alva has been involved in almost everything that's happened around here. Hroggar's house burns down and he pledges himself to Alva the very next day; your wife suddenly begins to spend time with Alva and disappears the night they were supposed to meet." He let his arms fall to his sides, "Coincidence? I doubt it."

Thonnir just stood as he took in all the information but then shook his head, "No, no, Laelette may have met her terrible fate in the marsh, but I refuse to believe Alva had anything to do with this! There is no way you can prove it to the jarl!"

Finally Lydia who had been very quiet this whole time spoke up, "Why wouldn't you want to find the truth, and to know who did this to your wife?"

Thonnir looked down in shame, "I don't want to think that one of our own town would do this."

Nickar preceded to walk past the grieving man, "We'll find out who did this to your wife." He then walked away from the graveyard back to the town, Lydia followed.

The news of Laelette had spread pretty quickly when Thonnir came down and told everyone. People had planned to go to bed after their evening at the tavern, but the news of Laelette's turning and death had people up and talking. More so out of fear than the excitement of hearing such news. Nickar and Lydia had decided to get a quick drink before setting off to find out about Alva.

However when Nickar stood leaned against a wooden pillar of the tavern Alva walked over to him. Lydia, who was standing over by the bar saw this and readied herself to defend her thane if need be. Though like when they met before, Alva showed no hostility toward the man who was looking into the house fire.

She just stood and examined the rather small Nord man drinking a bottle of mead. Nickar decided to break the silence, "Can I help you with something?"

Alva put on her best seductive smile, "Nothing right now handsome." Nickar understood how she seduced Hroggar if that was indeed the case, she was definitely very attractive."

She then brought her hand up to his cheek, "I heard you put Laelette out of her misery, we'll have to spend some time together some time."

Nickar just took another sip of his mead, almost ignoring her.

She then ran her hand down from his cheek to his arm as if to feel the small but strong muscles, "Hmm, strong and silent, I like that, maybe you'll meet me in the marsh later."

Nickar chuckled, "Why way out in the marsh?"

Alva continued her seduction, "Because handsome, that's where all the magic happens." She then walked away toward the door out of the tavern.

Nickar cursed the situation, if he didn't highly suspect Alva to be the culprit he might have taken that marsh invitation.

Lydia quickly walked over to Nickar, "What was that about?"

Nickar put his drink on a nearby table, "She's trying to seduce me, lead me into the marsh."

Lydia got a concerned look, "You won't do it will you?"

Nickar laughed, "Me? By the Gods no1 You are!"

"What?" Lydia asked with surprise.

"I'm gonna take a look in her house, you follow her."

Lydia still didn't like the idea, "Why me?"

Nickar sighed, "You're a woman, so if she spots you she'll be less likely to seduce you. But try to stay out of site and don't follow her to deep into the marsh."

Lydia wasn't convinced, "Forgive me my thane but this may not be the best…"

Nickar cut her off, "Trust me, as long as your careful and don't follow her to deep you should be fine."

Lydia nodded, "As you command my thane." She then walked out the door after Alva, and Nickar walked his way over to Alva's house. He saw Lydia quietly follow Alva near the bridge leading out of town so the only person he might have to deal with was Hroggar.

Nickar tried to open the door, it was locked. Nickar had never been good at picking locks so when no one was looking he quickly broke the lock and opened the door. Upon entrance he was almost immediately attacked by a man with a steel crafted war axe. The mas was Hroggar. He had blond hair, a dirt covered face, and wore typical lumberjack clothes. Though Nickar was more concerned with the axe Hroggar swung.

Hroggar attempted to lop Nickar's head off with the axe but failed. Nickar then grabbed hold of the axe and forced it against the wall. Hroggar tried to fight back but was no match against the man with far more combat experience. Nickar delivered a strong head-butt to Hroggar knocking him down. He let out a groan of pain as he fell to the ground, the iron helmet Nickar wore only amplified the pain. Nickar then held Hroggar down with his boot on his chest.

"What's Alva been up to?" Nickar snarled.

"I'll never tell you anything!" Hroggar snapped back.

Nickar then decided that he was bound to find out more on his own and quickly delivered a punch to Hroggar's head, knocking him out cold. He searched his pockets and found the key to Alva's cellar. He used it to unlock the door and entered the cellar. It was a small and vacant room; there was nothing present except for an open coffin sitting in the middle of the room.

Seeing that, Nickar knew one thing for certain, Alva was a vampire. He walked over to it to find a red journal sitting in the coffin. This could have the evidence he needed to present to the jarl. He opened it and commenced reading.

_My life is dreary. Where is my prince come to rescue me? Where is my bold Nord warrior to sweep me off my feet? _

_I met_ _a man last night while picking nightflowers. He's so exiting and exotic. We kissed in the moonlight; it was so romantic. I'm going to see him again tonight._

_Now I understand the true colors of the night. Movarth has shown me the true black of night and the true red of blood. He has promised me a feast of blood if I do his bidding in Morthal._

_Hroggar was easy to seduce, Movarth suggested I find a protector first. After all, I'll need someone to watch over my coffin during the day. Hroggar is perfect._

_Laelette came to visit me tonight; she slacked my thirst. I've hidden her away to rise as my handmaiden once she turns. I've spread rumor in town that she left to join the war. Ha what fools!_

_Movarth has confided his grand plan to me. I am to seduce all the guardsmen one by one and make them my slaves. Then he and the others from the cave can descend upon Morthal during the night and take the entire town. We won't kill them, they will become our cattle to quench our thirst. An endless supply of blood and an entire town to protect us from the cursed sun!_

_Hroggar's family is becoming inconvenient. I've told Laelette to kill them all, but to make it look like an accident. Hroggar must be seen as innocent if he is to remain my protector._

_That little fool! Laelette burned Hroggar's family alive. I asked for an accident and she gave me a scandal! To make matters worse, she tried to turn Hroggar's little girl, Helgi. Except Laelette couldn't even get that right. She killed the child and left the body to burn._

_Something is wrong with Laelette. She keeps talking about Helgi. I think her mind may have snapped. She seems to think that the child can still be brought back to be her companion._

_A couple of strangers just came into town that are investigating the fire. A man and a woman. I don't know their relationship, but I should probably seduce the man immediately before he discovers our plot. They seem persistent, I should be cautious._

Nickar quickly snapped the journal close. His heart quickened, he didn't know how close to conclusion Alva's plan was. His mind then drifted to Lydia, he hoped she was okay. Right now he had to focus in getting the proof to the jarl. He took off and left the house and ran to the jarl's hall.

When he entered the hall only a few guards were present. He was told that the jarl and her family were now asleep and that whatever he needed to see her for could wait until morning. Their attitudes changed when Nickar explained the proof he had. Soon he found himself with Jarl Idgrod outside of she and her husband's bed chamber.

She didn't appear to be too angry about being woken up in the in the middle of the night. "So is Hroggar innocent or not?" she asked.

Nickar then told her everything he knew about Laelette, Hroggar, and most importantly Alva.

When he finished the jarl almost laughed, "Alva? I didn't think she had it in her."

"Turns out she's a vampire, and she enthralled Hroggar and was planning on enthralling the guardsmen."

Idgrod sighed, "I assume you have proof, you can't go making accusations like that without proof." Nickar handed her the journal and she began reading it. When she was done a look of anger showed on her face, "Alva, the traitorous bitch! Morthal owes you a debt."

Nickar let out a sigh of relief, "I'm just glad it's not too late."

"Indeed" she then handed over large full coin purse. "As promised, 500 septims."

Nickar took it, "Thank you my jarl."

Jarl Idgrod then got a disappointed look, "I'm afraid I still need something from you my friend. This journal mentions the name Movarth, he's a powerful master vampire that I thought dead centuries ago."

Nickar waved his hand signaling for her to continue.

"As long as he lives Morthal is still in danger. I'm going to round up a guard force to accompany you to the cave to destroy Movarth and his minions."

"What about Hroggar and Alva?" asked Gorm, Jarl Idgrod's housecarl.

"Hroggar's knocked out in his home, you might want to go get him before he wakes up."

Gorm nodded, "Alright, but what about Alva?"

"She should be at that cave you're talking about, deep in the marsh." Everyone looked to the voice to find Lydia walking toward them."

Nickar smiled, "Good to see you're not dead." said Nickar.

Lydia returned the smile before continuing, "I followed her into the marsh; she just waited for you for a bit but then walked deeper into the marsh. I stopped following her after that and came back."

The jarl then turned to Gorm, "Gorm, round up some guards and get them ready to head into the marsh, and get someone to recover Hroggar."

Gorm saluted, "Of course my jarl."

The jarl then turned back to Nickar, "Thank you for all that you've done stranger; you will always have a place in Morthal."

Nickar put his helmet back on, "You can thank me when the job is done."

Authors Notes:

Ok! I think this is getting good, but you, the readers remain the ultimate judges. So I hope y'all are enjoying this, and I'd appreciate it if you would leave your completely honest review for me to read.

Characters and Important topics:

Ysmir- Ysmir, also known as the "Dragon of the North", is considered to be the Nordic aspect and spirit of all Dragonborn. He is also known to specifically be the Nordic aspect of Talos or Tiber Septim himself. This is odd because during Tiber Septim's conquest to conquer all of Tamriel it is said that the spirit of Ysmir was Tiber Septim's secret ally. WTF?

It has come to my attention that I may not be telling all of this the right way so if you have any questions I would just search the "Elder Scrolls lore."


	11. Chapter 11

**SERIOUS QUESTION IN THE AUTHOR'S NOTES!**

Chapter 11- A Blade in the Dark

"Morthal used to be a quiet place, but then the world used to make sense." Quote-Benor

It was now around midnight and the town of Morthal which was usually quiet was teeming with activity. Gorm, the jarl's housecarl had rounded up at least fifteen guardsmen for the raiding of Movarth's lair. Torches were lit and being waved around. Many of the townsfolk were bringing their children indoors.

Nickar and Lydia were sitting against the jarl's hall waiting for the attack force to ready itself. Lydia just sat, but Nickar was taking the time to sharpen his sword with an ingot.

After a while Gorm signaled to them that the raid was about to start. They both got up and headed to join the group of guards. "You think this is enough?" asked Nickar.

Gorm nodded, "Unfortunately this is the most I can gather without leaving the town and the jarl unprotected."

"Well you have two more to count in." shouted a familiar voice.

They both looked to find Thonnir, Laelette's husband, and Benor, 'the best warrior in Morthal' as he so called himself approaching to join the raiding party. Thonnir held a rather old but sturdy looking iron sword and a torch while Benor wielded a large battle-axe.

Nickar wasn't surprised that Benor was offering a hand, but he wasn't sure why Thonnir, a farmer would go to battle. "You want to help us take down the vampires?" he asked.

Thonnir must have been offended by the question because he began to speak with a voice full of rage, "What I want is vengeance for my wife, vengeance for Laelette! I'm marching on Movarth's lair whether you come or not!"

Nickar nodded and gave him a thankful slap on the shoulder.

Gorm then walked up the steps to the entrance of the jarl's hall and turned to address the guards. "Soldiers of Morthal! It is true that some of our own have fallen to the vampiric disease, but this night we march on their lair and rid Hjaalmarch of there filth!"

The crowd answered with cheers and battle cries.

Gorm then continued, "For our fallen, for Hjaalmarch, for Morthal!"

The group then roared its approval and began charging over the bridge and into the marsh. Nickar loved a battle cry as much as the next Nord, but wouldn't the vampires or something else in the marsh hear their cries and see there blazing torches. Nickar put the thought to the side and focused, for they had just past into the marsh.

After a while of running through the marsh with their torches raised high in the air they stopped. Thonnir let out his disapproval, "Why have we stopped?"

Gorm, who was leading the charge, held up his torch hand to silence the rest of the group. Around them birds began to panic and quickly fly away as their wings fluttered rapidly. The group grew tense and began to look around for the source of all the near noises.

Nickar turned to Lydia who had both her sword and shield at the ready, "Do you see anything?"

"No" Lydia quickly whispered.

The noises seemed to get closer as each second passed. Large heavy footsteps were heard along with the sound of small creatures running away. Then suddenly all the noise subsided and all was quiet once again.

A guard then broke the silence, "We moving on then?"

Almost on cue a large beast covered in black fur leaped from some large bushes and into the crowd of warriors. It landed on one guard crushing him under its weight and swiped at another guard with its sharp claw leaving three massive bloody tears in his armor and skin which immediately killed the man.

Suddenly, another beast charged in and rammed its way through several guards. Someone managed to successfully land an arrow on its shoulder, leaving it briefly stunned. The first beast then attacked Nickar with its massive claws. He brought up his shield in defense but was knocked off his feet and into the murky water.

Lydia slashed her sword at the second beast, only ending in failure. Most of the torches had been knocked down to the ground so it was hard to tell what the creatures were due to their godlike speed combined with the dark of night. Every occasion a warrior would land a successful hit or arrow on the beasts but these creatures definitely had the upper hand.

Nickar quickly got to his feet in the shallow water and looked to the beast that was coming toward him into the light of a fallen torch. From just one clear look Nickar knew what these creatures were. Werewolves, the creatures being hunted by day, and obviously were the hunters of the night.

"Werewolves!" he shouted before bursting out of the water lunging for the wolf in front of him. The werewolf was caught off guard due to an attack from a guard earlier. Nickar quickly jabbed his sword into the wolf's abdomen making it howl in pain. Without his shield, Nickar had no defense against the wolf's claws. Those worries were quickly put to ease when Benor came up behind the wolf and buried his large axe into its back forcing it to its knees. The wolf was finished when a guard jabbed his torch into the wolf's eye and slit its throat with his sword.

Gorm waved his torch in warning to the last werewolf, keeping it away. Two guards landed arrows in its side, stunning its movement. Gorm threw his torch at the wolf and watched as it began to burn its thick fur. It howled in pain as it turned to run away, but was stopped when a guard smashed its mace into the side of its head and Lydia thrust her sword into its heart. With a final growl it fell dead to the ground.

With the fight over the remaining warriors picked up their bearings and got ready to continue their charge to the cave.

Gorm then yelled out, "How many injured?"

A frustrated guard then then took off his helmet, "Injured! Five of us our dead!"

"We need to move on!" yelled Thonnir.

"There's no room for milk drinkers in this raid!" said Benor.

The group roared its approval and began to push on. As Nickar went to the water to recover his shield he overheard a conversation between a couple of guards.

"I thought these things were just a myth."

The other swung a quiver of arrows on his back, "So were dragons."

The group then charged to the cave, never slowing down. The thrall the vampires had put on guard near the cave entrance was victim to quite the surprise when he was cut down and trampled by a mob of angry Nords. The mob charged as one and destroyed everything that got in its way whether it was a thrall or vampire.

They eventually reached the main chamber in the cavern. It was a large space and in the middle was a long stone table covered in blood stained rags and bones. By Nickar's best guess, this was the dining hall. Due to the largeness of the room and separation of vampires the group was force to separate and fight more widespread combat.

A vampire charged Nickar; he swung his shield to the left delivering a bash disarming the vampire of his sword. It then jumped back and let loose some kind of spell upon Nickar that felt like it was draining the life force out of him. Acting on this, Nickar attempted to lop the vampires head off. It ducked and avoided the attack but was forced to cut its spell off. It then quickly stood back up made a deep scratch on Nickar's harm. Nickar groaned in pain as he hit the vampire with the edge of his shield and cut the vampire down from the shoulder to waist killing it.

He was then suddenly kicked to the ground by another vampire. When Nickar sat up to look at his adversary, he was surprised to find out that the vampire was talking to him as the battle raged around them. "Alva tells me you're the one who caught on to our scheme; you'll pay for ruining our plan." This must have been Movarth. He was pale skinned like any vampire, had a bald head, there was some sort of scratch that cut through his eye.

Nickar quickly got up and ran toward Movarth. Movarth held no weapons but began to fire ice spikes at him. Nickar quickly pitted himself behind his shield as an ice spike hit it and shattered. He began to charge the master vampire again and narrowly avoided a bolt of lightning that Movarth sent toward him. Nickar tried to cut him in half but Movarth jumped back at the last second and sent his claw like hand at Nickar's chest.

The armor absorbed most of the blow but the vampiric strength knocked Nickar through the air and back on the ground, a position he found himself in a lot these days. Movarth was about to finish him with an ice spike when Lydia twirled with her sword behind him and cut deep into his back. He screamed in pain as Benor slammed him to the ground and delivered the tip of his axe to the vampires head. Movarth was now truly dead.

Lydia once again helped Nickar to his feet and offered him a joking smirk, "Ready for another bout?"

Nickar chuckled, "You kidding, I can do this all day!"

Somewhere a guard threw his torch into an oil slick and lit a blazing fire throughout the cave. It greatly affected the vampires who had little tolerance for heat as well as sunlight.

Nickar, Lydia, and Benor ran down a passage of the cave in search of more vampires. The fire was quickly spreading through the cave and creating smoke to the point where it was getting dangerous for the raiding party. A portion of the cave roof came crashing down between Nickar and Lydia and Benor, blocking the Nickar's way back.

His heart leapt when cold hands wrapped around his neck from behind him. He found that he was quickly removed of his sword and shield and fighting for his life. The force behind him tried to pin him down on his stomach. Nickar managed to partially break free and unsheathe his dagger and slash at whoever was behind him.

The attacker avoided the dagger with ease and pinned the arm wielding it down with her fur boot. Nickar struggled but couldn't fight against the vampiric strength and found that he was pinned. Looking to identify his attacker he found that it was none other than Alva. Her red vampiric eyes were full of hate and rage. Her hair had been partially singed by the spreading fire.

"You've ruined everything!" she hissed.

Nickar tried to push her off but failed, "Get off me monster!"

A smile then reached her features, but not her typical seductive smile, this one was full of pure malice and evil. "You may have foiled our plans here, but you won't leave her alive."

"Then kill me monster! I'll gladly embrace death in Sovnguard!" he snapped.

Alva almost laughed, "Well, when I said that you wouldn't leave here alive that's only technically true." She smiled as the realization of her intentions reached Nickar's face. She planned to turn him, to make him a vampire.

He tried to break free with all his might but failed again.

Alva then showed her sharp fangs and slowly brought them to Nickar's neck. She was only half an inch away when the tip of a blade struck through her chest. She gasped as blood began to spill from her all over Nickar. And with one last cold breath she died.

Nickar quickly removed her corpse from on top of him and found that Thonnir was standing above them him with his hand extended out. "For Laelette!" he shouted.

Before Nickar could take the offered hand, there was a snap and the cave roof began to cave in on top of them. The blow from the rocks left him seeing double and within seconds he blacked out.

His sleep was plagued with nightmares of blood, screaming, and the foul laughter of dark beings. Finally after a night of horror Nickar woke. He found that he was lying in a bed of soft animal furs. For some reason he felt like his hands were raised; when he tried to move them he discovered that they were bound to the upper bedpost. He was dressed in some ragged robes much like the ones he wore in Helgen.

"Hi there." said a little girl's voice.

Nickar looked beside him to find Helgi's ghost standing right next to the bed. "Helgi?" he whispered.

The spirit looked around a moment before answering, "I can't stay, I have to go, my mama's calling. Before she disappeared she uttered words that left Nickar with a small smile, "Thank you for making her feel better."

Once she vanished, Nickar looked around at his surroundings; he was in some sort of basement. He then noticed another bed with someone sleeping in it, it was Hroggar. He must be back in Morthal. Nickar found it a little strange how he was in chained down but Hroggar, Alva's thrall, wasn't.

Some footsteps turned Nickar's attention across the room to find Falion walking down some wooden steps into the basement. When he saw Nickar awake he tensed and walked over to his bed. "So you're up."

Nickar didn't answer and Falion began carefully examining him. He then placed a hand over his heart before he spoke, "Well your eyes and teeth are normal, your skin isn't too pale, and your heart's beating. He chuckled, "I think that's a good sign."

"Why am I chained to the bed?" Nickar asked nervously.

Falion cut one of the bindings on one of his hands letting it free, "You had been scratched by a couple of vampires during the raid; that can lead to a person contracting vampirism. I did what I could but I couldn't tell if you'd awake as a vampire or not." He then cut the last binding leaving both of Nickar's hands free.

Nickar rubbed his wrists, "I guess that means I'm alright then."

Falion just nodded before turning to Hroggar who was starting to awake. Hroggar looked up and saw Falion and began rubbing his head, "Oh Gods, what happened? The last thing I remember is Alva and…" He then stopped and fear found its way to his eyes, "Stendarr's mercy! My family!"

He quickly made a move to get up but Falion intervened and laid him back down, "Calm yourself Hroggar, you need time to rest."

Hroggar obeyed but still looked around worryingly, "My family?"

Before Falion could answer Nickar cut in, "They were lost in that house fire."

Hroggar laid his head completely back and let out a few tears. Falion looked back to Nickar, "You're gear is waiting upstairs by the door for when you're ready to go, and I'll let your housecarl know you're alright."

Nickar nodded and Falion walked back up the stairs. Nickar looked back over to Hroggar who was just sitting leaned over on his bed with his hands covering his face. Nickar crossed the room and sat next to him, "I'm sorry bout your family."

Hroggar revealed his face and nodded. "I've lost my family; what do I do now?"

Nickar sighed; he had never really been good at giving advice like this, especially about coping with grief. He had been recruited into the Keepers of Hattu's vanguard program when he was seven years old. Growing up with no family and hardly any friends, Nickar had never really been close to anyone. To him people dying was just part of living, especially now when Skyrim was divided by civil war.

"You try to move on." was all he could say.

Much to Nickar's annoyance, that wasn't enough for Hroggar. "How can I move on when my family is dead because of me?"

That was something Nickar could answer, "Alva did this to your family, and you were enthralled. It ain't your fault."

Hroggar nodded, understanding the situation.

Nickar stood up and laid a hand on Hroggar's shoulder, "You will see them again, in Sovnguarde."

He then walked up the stairs gathered his gear and went outside. The fresh morning air was quite soothing. Almost immediately Lydia ran over to him, "My thane, thank the Gods you're alright!"

Nickar chuckled, "What part of I can do this all day did you not understand?"

Lydia returned the gest, "Of course, forgive me."

Nickar pointed to the tavern, "Come on let's get something to eat." They both went to the tavern and ate a quite sizeable breakfast. Nickar had at least to two large pieces of meat along with four eggs. They were about to head out of town when the jarl's guardsmen stopped them.

Jarl Idgrod and her entire family were standing outside of the hall waiting to give gratitude. When Nickar stood in front of her she offered him a large sword. Nickar could tell that it was Orcish made due to the curve and jaggedness of the blade. Next to the Nords and maybe Redguards, Orcs were some of the best blacksmiths in Tamriel.

"I present to you the blade of Hjaalmarch, wielded by Morthal's last savior."

Nickar graciously took the blade, it was a bit heavy, but what else would he expect from an Orc made weapon. He handed the weapon to Lydia who slid it into a sheath on her back.

Jarl Idgrod continued, "Visit Morthal any time, you're quite welcome here."

Nickar bowed his head, "Thank you my jarl."

After saying their goodbyes, Nickar and Lydia took a carriage that was passing through Riverwood. They both prayed to the Gods that this ride would go better than the last. It was early evening when they arrived in Riverwood. Nickar smiled, it was good to be back here; he was also happy to see that Jarl Balgruuf came through and sent some guards to Riverwood.

Nickar looked around and saw Ralof's family working at the mill, though Ralof was nowhere to be found. He must have gone back to Windhelm.

"Where we meeting the person who took the horn?" asked Lydia.

"The Sleeping Giant Inn." he said.

They walked into the inn. There didn't seem to be any suspicious characters around; just a few townsfolk and a man at the bar. Nickar went up to the bar, "I need a room?"

The man looked confused for a second but then answered, "Oh I just cook, but if you need a room talk to Delphine." He pointed to a short Breton woman leaned against the wall. She looked to be either in her late forties or at most fifty. She had blond hair that seemed healthy for her age. It formed a ponytail in the back. In fact her whole body looked to be in great health, really the only thing that gave away her age were some slight wrinkles on her face.

Nickar approached her, "You Delphine?"

She gave him a cold stare, "Who's asking?"

Nickar sighed, "I'm just here to rent a room, the attic room."

Delphine looked confused for a moment but then snapped out of it, "Well we don't have an attic room, but you're welcome to the room on the left." She then pointed to the room on the left side of the inn.

Nickar nodded and walked to the room, Lydia followed. No attic room? Something was wrong.

"Do you think we were set up?" asked Lydia.

Nickar sighed, sat down in a chair, and removed his helmet. "I don't know. I guess it could have been a trick. We should leave."

Before either of them could move they found that Delphine, the innkeeper was standing in the doorway. "So you're the Dragonborn I've been hearing so much about."

Neither Nickar nor Lydia answered. Delphine then revealed an ancient looking horn and tossed it to Nickar, "I think you're looking for this."

Nickar caught it, "Who are you?"

"We need to talk, follow me."

She then led them out of the room and to a room directly across from them. This room was much bigger, most likely her own room. When they all walked in Delphine turned to Lydia, "shut the door." Lydia complied. Delphine then turned to and opened a wardrobe, it was empty. With the quick flick of a switch the back of the wardrobe slid to the side revealing a staircase leading into a basement.

Delphine looked back to Lydia, "Stand guard here, don't let anyone through." She then turned to Nickar, "You follow me."

Nickar then gave Lydia the okay to stand guard and followed Delphine down into the basement, shutting the wardrobe behind him. The basement was a small room, a wooden table with a map of Skyrim sat in the center of the room, a weapon rack with strange long swords was to the right, and in the back was a bookshelf and alchemy station.

Delphine walked around to the far side of the table and Nickar walked up to the closest side. Delphine leaned against the table, "So the Greybeards think they found a Dragonborn, I hope their right."

Nickar finally spoke up, "You're the one who took the horn?"

Delphine smirked, "Surprised? I guess I'm getting pretty good at my harmless innkeeper act."

"Why'd you take it?" asked Nickar.

Delphine sighed, "I needed to make sure that the rumors of a Dragonborn were true, and not some Thalmore trap."

The part about the Thalmor did not go unnoticed by Nickar, "The Thalmor are after you?"

Delphine nodded, "Yes, we're very old enemies, and if my suspicions are correct they have something to do with the dragons returning. But that's not important right now, what's important is that you might be Dragonborn."

Nickar decided to cut to the chase, "Look I'm no friend of the Thalmor either, but how can I trust you?"

She almost laughed, "If you don't trust me then you were a fool to have walked in here in the first place."

Nickar sighed; she seemed to have gotten him there. "I'm just here for the horn."

"And I just need you to hear me out. I'm actually trying to help you." she quickly retorted.

Nickar let out a heavy sigh, "I'm listening."

"Good. Like I said in my note, I heard you were Dragonborn and I needed to speak with you."

Nickar was puzzled, "How did you know to take the horn?"

Delphine chuckled, "I saw it coming; the Greybeards are nothing if not predictable."

Nickar decided to leave the subject alone and move to a more pressing matter, "Who are you?"

"I'm part of a group that's been looking for you… well, someone like you for a very long time."

"Why?" he asked.

"We remember what most don't- that the Dragonborn is the ultimate dragonslayer. You're the only one who can kill a dragon permanently by devouring its soul." Delphine explained.

Nickar nodded, "Right, that's what the Jarl Balgruuf and his men told me."

Delphine then looked him right in the eye, "Can you do it? Can you devour a dragon's soul?"

Nickar found the question as odd as when the guard in Whiterun asked him. He just shrugged, "That's what the Greybeards said; all I know is that I absorb some kind of power from dead dragons."

Delphine sighed, "This is no time to play the reluctant hero, you either are Dragonborn or you aren't."

Nickar lightly slapped the table, "Alright then yes."

"Good, and you'll have a chance to prove it to me soon enough."

"What are you talking about?" asked Nickar.

"Dragon's aren't just coming back; they're coming back to life." said Delphine.

Nickar showed that he didn't understand. She continued, "They weren't gone somewhere for all these years. They were dead, killed off centuries ago by my predecessors. Now something's happening to bring them back to life, and I need you to help me stop it."

Nickar chuckled, "What makes you think that the Dragons are coming back?"

"I know they are." She then waved her hand over a map of Skyrim in front of her on the table. "I've visited their ancient burial mounds and found them empty, and I figured out where the next one would come back to life."

Nickar signaled for her to continue, "And?"

Delphine pointed to the map, "We're going to go there and kill the dragon. If we succeed, I'll tell you everything you want to know."

Nickar thought for a moment, "How did you figure all this out?"

Delphine chuckled, "You should know, you're the one who recovered the Dragonstone for Farengar."

Nickar stopped moving entirely, "You have the stone?" he asked.

Delphine bent down and brought the familiar stone to the table, "I asked Farengar to find it for me, when I came to get it I heard everyone in the jarl's hall talking about you."

Nickar ran his fingers along the stone, "Why'd you need it?"

"It's a map of all the dragon burial mounds in Skyrim."

Nickar then looked to paper map, "You said you knew where the next dragon would supposedly come back to life?"

She nodded, "Yes, after studying the Dragonstone and visiting the mounds for myself I discovered that the resurrections seem to be expanding from the southwest near the Jerall mountains."

Nickar pointed to a spot on the map, "So right next to Riften?"

Delphine nodded, "If I'm right, the next resurrection will take place at Kynesgrove."

Nickar frowned, "Where's that?"

She pointed to a mark on the map just south of Windhelm, "It's right here. It's a pretty small town, mostly just a mining village."

Nickar leaned against the table, "You're sure about this?"

Delphine scowled, "I don't do anything these days unless I'm completely sure."

Nickar then stopped leaning on the table, "Alright, we'll head there in the morning."

Delphine shook her head, "No, this dragon could be resurrected any minute, we need to move now."

Nickar chuckled, "You're saying we should travel at night?"

Delphine smiled, "If you want my help."

Nickar sighed, "Do I need your help?"

She just glared at Nickar in silence.

Nickar finally gave up, "Fine, let's go kill a dragon!"

Authors Notes: Hey y'all! Here's another chapter for you. I hope you like it, but whether you do or not I'd appreciate some reviews that say why you like it or why not. Also from now on I'll leave a quote at the top before each chapter just to share a bit of the Elder Scrolls universe.

Characters:

Delphine- We'll talk more about her later.

Benor- He's just some guy that hangs around Morthal.

Important question: About four hours before this chapter was uploaded, the power went out while I was using my Xbox. I was playing Skyrim as a matter of fact. Anyway the power was out for like a few seconds but when it came back on my Xbox wouldn't turn back on. There was no red ring of death but there was a red light glowing from something behind it that I don't think was there before. Since the power went out and suddenly came back on, I'm pretty sure it was a power surge. The point is that Xbox is kind of my source when writing this story so if someone out there could give me some info as to quote on quote fix it, I'd be grateful and give them one hell of a shout out. That's it, peace y'all.


	12. Chapter 12

"I am Sahloknir! Hear my voice and despair!" quote- Sahloknir

Chapter 12- The Resurrection

There were reasons why the wilds of Skyrim were not meant to be explored at night. Creatures of the night roamed and hunted, bandits and thieves would pick off any foolish adventurers, and lastly witches and rogue mages looked for something or someone to perform incomprehensible rituals on.

Yet, here were three adventurers quickly making their way along the road to Kynesgrove. Delphine apparently knew the way so she led, while Nickar and Lydia ran a few feet behind. They were running because Delphine felt that the next dragon resurrection would happen at any minute. Nickar, like Delphine was wearing light armor, but the heavy shield he held over his back was staring to take its toll. He felt bad for Lydia since she had to put up with the long run in her heavy steel armor along with her own shield. Though, like a true Nord, she soldiered on.

They quickly came to a stop when Delphine held up her hand signaling to halt. She then turned back to her followers, "There's an old watchtower ahead."

Nickar put his hand above his line of vision, "Yeah, we've passed it before, it's deserted."

Delphine pointed to the bridge that connected the two towers across a flowing river, "Not anymore by the looks of it." Someone was crossing the bridge, they looked armed.

"Bandits?" asked Lydia.

Delphine nodded, "This is a notorious bandit hideout." She then turned to Nickar, "I hope you don't mind if we have to kill a few bandits."

Nickar chuckled, "You'll soon find out."

They then ran down the road toward the watchtower. Once they reached they discovered that an Imperial woman was keeping watch by the tower's entrance. When she saw the three adventurers approach she moved to block their way.

"Hey this is a toll road! If you want to pass, you gotta pay the fee."

Nickar didn't back down, "What if we don't pay?"

The bandit brought her hand over the handle of her axe, "Then I call and the rest of my group comes and kills you, and then we take the coin of your corpses."

Nickar gave the bandit a cold stare; Lydia's hand hovered over the hilt of her blade. Delphine walked up between Nickar and the bandit, "It'd be best if you just let us go."

The bandit chuckled, "Why's that."

Delphine smirked, "If we don't pay the rest of your group will come for us, but do you really think that they'll get down here in time before we've put you down?"

The Imperial said nothing.

Delphine shrugged, "It's your choice."

The bandit relented and waved them off, "Fine, go ahead, my shift's over anyway."

They then continued to jog down the road. Delphine pointed out they were getting close to Kynesgrove when they passed the large and ancient city of Windhelm, the city of kings. Windhelm was the oldest city in Skyrim still in existence. It was also home to Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak and his rebellion. Nickar wandered if Ralof was in Windhelm right now or somewhere else in Skyrim. Of course, there was always the possibility that he was dead.

After taking south road from Windhelm to Kynesgrove, it instantly became colder and the snow became much heavier. Eastmarch, Windhelm's hold was said to be the coldest place in Skyrim. Since Nickar and Lydia were Nords, they were used to the cold. However even though Delphine was a Breton, she seemed to be brushing off the cold with ease. Nickar supposed that since Delphine seemed to constantly be on the run from the Thalmor that she had somewhat become attuned to the harsh weathers of Skyrim.

After a few minutes of running Kynesgrove was finally in view. It didn't look like a dragon had attacked, but then again the heavy snow made it difficult to see.

Delphine exhaled heavily, the cold hair revealed her breath. "Looks clear."

"We at the right place?" asked Lydia.

Delphine turned to Lydia and gave her a cold stare.

Quickly, Lydia brought up her hands in defense.

Nickar sighed, "We'll let's get up there and check it out."

Before they could continue up the hill to the town, a woman ran down in front of them.

"No stop! You don't want to go up there… a dragon… a dragon's attacking!"

Delphine was the first to act; she walked up to the woman and put her hands on her shoulders. "Slow down, do you know what the dragon is doing?"

The roar of a dragon was heard and the woman panicked and tried to run off, but Delphine stopped her.

The woman finally let it out, "I don't know it's just flying over the old burial mound!"

Delphine nodded and released the woman who quickly ran down the hill. She then turned back to Nickar and Lydia, "Come on we may be too late!"

The trio quickly drew their weapons and ran past the inn, the only building in the small mining town, and up the pathway to the dragon burial mound. They were almost to the mound when they saw a huge black scaled object fly through the air, a dragon.

Delphine looked at the black winged beast with a combination of hatred and amazement, "Damn look at the size of that bastard!"

They all continued to run up the path until they reached the burial mound. The big black dragon was flapping its wings and hovering above the mound. It was strange, but Nickar felt like he had seen this dragon before. They all hid behind a large rock and continued to watch the site before them.

Much to their surprise, that dragon began to speak, "Sahloknir! Ziil gro dovah ulse!" Its voice was deep, and just about as dark as its owner looked. Nickar swore he had heard that same voice before.

The dragon spoke again, but this time in the form of shout. "Slen Tiid Vo!" There was a thundering boom and the dragon let loose some sort of force upon the mound. For a while nothing happened, but after a few seconds the ground above the mound began to crack and bits of dirt and rocks flew in all directions. One large piece of debris flew towards the rock that Nickar, Lydia, and Delphine were hiding behind. It exploded on impact causing the group a bit of trouble keeping their balance in their crouched positions.

Delphine gave Nickar a worried look, "This is worse than I thought."

Lydia shook her head in either fear or amazement, "I thought this was all legend."

A skeletal dragon climbed out of its mound and looked up at the dragon that had just breathed life back into it. It was only bones until it was enveloped in a golden light that returned its green scaly skin. It then spoke to the dragon hovering above in its deep booming voice, "Alduin, thuri! Boaan tiid vokriiha suleyksejun kruziik?"

The black dragon above responded, "Geh, Sahloknir, kaali mir."

Nickar didn't have any idea what these two dragons were saying to each other, but they were definitely speaking in their own language. He was surprised when the black dragon turned its blood red eyes toward him and the others. Suddenly Nickar realized what he was looking at. He had seen all of it, the black scaled wings, the blood curling voice, and the fiery red eyes. This was the same dragon he had seen a little more than a week ago, the one that destroyed Helgen.

He was even more surprised when the dragon spoke toward them, "Ful, losei Dovahkiin? Zu'u koraav nid nol dov do hi."

Nickar gave Delphine a nudge, "Is he talking to me?" he whispered.

Delphine didn't answer; she just kept her eyes locked on the dragon.

The dragon almost chuckled, "You do not even know out tongue do you? Such arrogance, do dare take for yourself the name of dovah." The dragon then turned its attention back to the now resurrected dragon, "Sahloknir, krii daar joorre." The black dragon flew off leaving the group alone with now resurrected dragon.

The other dragon took off into the air and began circling in the sky.

Delphine grabbed her bow, "Come on this is our chance!" She then charged into the open followed by Nickar and Lydia.

The dragon circling overhead began to fly closer to the ground. "I am Sahloknir! Here my voice and despair!"

Lydia and Delphine shot arrows at the dragon while Nickar waited for an opening with his sword and shield. They weren't having any luck. The dragon then began to close in on Nickar; it inhaled and breathed fire upon him. If it hadn't been for his shield that he covered himself with, he would have been roasted.

Delphine took the opportunity to land an arrow on the dragon as it flew over Nickar. It then came back around and landed on a large nearby rock. Lydia landed an arrow just above the dragon's nose. It seemed to grunt in pain before it began to breathe fire at her. Luckily before Lydia could be harmed, Delphine tackled her and brought her to the ground at the last minute. While neither of them were burnt they still found the heat of the flames above them a little too hot to handle.

When the flames subsided the dragon looked to see if it hit its target. Before it could burn the two women alive it was interrupted by a small rock that hit it in the head. It turned its attention to Nickar with his sword and shield at the ready.

"This what you want you overgrown lizard?!" he yelled.

The dragon snarled, "I see mortals have grown arrogant while I slept!" It then much to Nickar's surprise dove off the rock toward Nickar. Nickar brought up his shield but was still knocked back when the dragon's talons went to grab him.

The dragon raised its flight pattern a little higher in the sky. Its blood curling roar gave Nickar a headache.

"You alright?!" asked Delphine from a distance. Suddenly Lydia pointed to something behind him, "Look out!"

He turned to see the dragon heading straight for him. It then shouted "Yol Toor Shul!" A wall of fire began to approach him with great speed. There was no time to move out of the way so Nickar did the only thing he could think to do, he shouted. "Fus Ro!"

The force from his shout met the dragon's wall of fire and dispersed the flames causing them to harmlessly hit the ground around him. The dragon then stopped to hover above the shouting mortal, "Finally a worthy opponent!"

It then landed right in front of Nickar causing the ground to shake. Nickar struggled to keep his balance. The dragon then snapped its massive jaws at Nickar but was blocked by his shield. Suddenly Delphine rushed in with her two strange long swords. She obviously had some sort of training in killing dragons because she approached the dragon with no fear.

She swung both of her swords down onto the dragon's face knocking its head back. Lydia attacked the dragon from behind but was knocked away by the dragon's tail. Nickar quickly ran under the dragon's neck and cut at it causing the some of the scales to crack and blood to spill.

Lydia returned to the fight and jammed her sword in the dragon's wing while Delphine crawled up onto the dragon's back and jammed her two swords into its vertebrate. The dragon panicked, shook Delphine off, and tried to fly away, but Lydia had damaged one of its wings too badly. Nickar took the opportunity to attack, "Fus Ro!"

The force of the shout caused the dragon to lose its footing and crash down to its belly. Delphine grabbed hold of one of the scales on its head and jammed her sword into the dragon's eye. It roared in pain as it lay hopelessly defeated by its mortal foes. It looked to find Nickar with his sword in both hands ready to make the killing blow.

"Dovahkiin No!"

Nickar didn't hesitate; he jammed his steel sword in between the dragon's eyes. He let out no roar; it just let out one last breath before its head dropped dead to the ground along with the rests of his body

Nickar, Lydia, and Delphine all stepped back to catch their breath. "We did it!" Lydia said excitedly. The dragon's scaly skin began to disintegrate; "Wait I think its happening!" said Delphine as she and Lydia backed away.

The dragons fading skin began to turn into some golden energy, and Delphine got an amazed look. "So you really are…"

The life force then left the dragon's body and began to flow to the Dragonborn. The sensation was very pleasing to Nickar, it almost seemed to warm him. Once all of the Dragon's life force was absorbed all that remained of the dragon was its skeleton. Nickar just stared at for a second, admiring his good work. He then turned to walk back to Delphine and Lydia.

Lydia was amazed at how she had just witnessed one of the oldest Nord legends take place. If Delphine hadn't been so hardened by a life of blood and violence, she may have cried that she had finally, after two hundred years found what her lost organization had been looking for. She had finally found someone with the dragonblood, a true Dragonborn.

As Nickar stood in front of her with expectant eyes she grinned. "I owe you some answers don't I?" She sighed, "Go ahead, whatever you want to know, and nothing held back."

Nickar thought for a moment before speaking up, "You're a Blade aren't you?"

The question caught Delphine completely off guard, "Wait, you actually remember us?"

Nickar smiled, "I think most people do, but all the fear for the Thalmor makes people conveniently forget things."

Lydia was having a hard time understanding, "I've read of the Blades before, but I can't say I know who they are."

Delphine looked back in forth between the two but then returned her attentions to Nickar, "How much do you know?"

Nickar sighed, "I know that they originated from the men of Akavir when they invaded Tamriel in the first era, and that they became the servants to the Dragonborn emperors of the second empire's Reman dynasty. The Blades themselves came to be when they served the Dragonborn emperor Tiber Septim when he conquered all of Tamriel into the third empire. The Blades were disbanded about twenty five years ago by the Thalmor when the emperor signed the Whit-Gold Concordat." He took a minute to catch his breath after he had finished his history lesson, "I think that's it."

Lydia nodded with understanding; Delphine just stared at him with utter shock. She had never met anyone outside of the Blades that knew as much as much as this new Dragonborn. He had said earlier that he was no friend of the Thalmore; that must have been an understatement if he knew so much about the glory days of the Empire.

"How do you know all this?" she asked. Nickar looked to Lydia; he could tell that she was just as eager to know as Delphine. He normally didn't speak of this to anyone outside of his organization out of the need to keep his involvement in an insurrectionist group a secret. Well some would consider it a terrorist group, but realistically, killing those Thalmor maggots anywhere they're found is doing a favor for the whole of Tamriel.

He finally decided he was with a safe group of people, "I'm with the Keepers of Hattu; I was raised into its Vanguard program. A lot of its members are Blade veterans."

Delphine sighed, "So I've finally found one of Valerius's men."

"We call him Val for secrecy." said Nickar.

Delphine chuckled, "So what's your group up to now? The Thalmor smashed you just like they did the Blades."

Nickar smiled as he thought of the Val, Korst, and the others in Cyrodiil making the Thalmor's lives there a living hell. "I can't talk about that."

Delphine just chuckled, understanding the reason why. After a few minutes of talking and gaining each other's trust they returned to the topic of dragons.

"So what do you know about the dragons coming back." asked Nickar.

Delphine sighed in frustration, "Not a damn thing, I was just as surprised as you to find that big black dragon shouting the other back to life."

Suddenly Nickar remembered that he had seen that black dragon before, "The one that got away, I've seen it before."

"Wait, you mean you've seen that same dragon before." asked Lydia.

Nickar nodded.

"Where?" Delphine eagerly asked.

"You've heard about Helgen right? I was there when the dragon attacked, and it was the same one we just saw."

Delphine stomped her foot to the ground in frustration, "Dammit! We're walking in the dark here; we need to figure out who's behind it all!"

"Well what's our next move?" asked Nickar.

Delphine thought for a moment, "I think we should start with the Thalmor."

Nickar chuckled, "As much as I hate those maggots, I don't know if they would have anything to do with this."

Delphine sighed, "I don't have any solid evidence, but my gut tells me it couldn't be anyone else."

"Why's that?" he asked.

"Think about it, the Imperials had captured Ulfric Stormcloak and were about to execute him. The war was basically over, but then a dragon attacks Helgen, Ulfric escapes, and the war is back on. Skyrim is weakened, the empire is weakened. Who else gains from that but the Thalmor?"

Nickar nodded, "Good point."

Delphine stopped to think again, "The only way to find out is to get into the Thalmor embassy, but the problem is that place is locked up tighter than a miser's purse."

Lydia chuckled, "So I guess we can't use the front door."

Delphine shook her head, "No they could teach me a few things about paranoia."

"There has to be some way in." said Nickar.

Delphine nodded, "There is. Every year the embassy holds a party where the rich and Imperial sympathizers snuggle up to the Thalmore. We might be able to sneak someone in."

"Alright so where do we start?" asked Nickar.

Delphine sighed, "That party isn't for a while, meet me back in Riverwood two months from now."

Nickar nodded, "Alright."

Once they had finished planning, Delphine headed off while Nickar and Lydia stayed in Kynesgrove for some food and rest. It was midnight, and the air was freezing. Nothing would hit the spot more than a bottle of mead and warm bed.

They rented a room with two single beds after they had finished eating. While they were getting ready for bed Lydia couldn't help but think about what Nickar had said about the Keepers of Hattu and the Blades.

When she turned to talk to him about it she found that he was sitting shirtless on his bed probing at a burn on his arm that he most likely got from their most recent dragon fight. She just stared at him until he looked up to her. She quickly took her eyes off of him.

Nickar chuckled, "What're you staring at?"

Lydia cleared her throat, "Oh nothing my thane."

She began to remove her armor in preparation for bed. Nickar wasn't satisfied, "Gotta be something."

Lydia sighed as she removed her armor from the waist up, "I just… I didn't know you were one of them."

Nickar let out his own sigh as he brought his hands to his almost bony knees. "I have been ever since I finished the vanguard training program when I was eighteen."

Lydia scratched her head, "I guess you can't really talk about it."

Nickar went tight lipped, "All I can say is we kill those Thalmor bastards wherever we can find them."

They both remained silent for a while, both feeling worried at what the other would think about their opinion. Finally Lydia nodded, "Good. Tamriel needs more people to stand up to the Dominion. Especially Skyrim."

Nickar smiled and nodded, "Yeah." He then got into his bed and under the covers. "Good night." he mumbled.

High Hrothgar; one day later-

Nickar sighed as he approached the Greybeards monastery. His mind drifted to Lydia, he hoped she had made it back to Whiterun safely. Once they left Kynesgrove he had told Lydia to head home since he was heading their again as well once he had delivered the horn to the Greybeards. Lydia seemed a bit disappointed at the news but followed his orders without question.

Nickar put the thought to the side once he reached the bronze doors of the monastery. As soon as he entered he found all four of the Greybeards waiting for him. "Ah, you've returned, we trust your journey was successful." said Arngeir.

Nickar approached them, got down on one knee, and then presented the horn.

Arngeir almost smiled, "Good you've retrieved the horn of Jurgen Windcaller. Well done, you've completed all the trials."

Nickar stood up, "Thank you, what next."

Arngeir sighed, "As I said, you have completed all the trials, and you are now ready to learn more of the voice. This will include 'dah', the third word in unrelenting force, which means push."

Nickar nodded, "Of course, right away master."

One of the greybeards walked up to the diamond shape in the floor and spoke, "Dah." The word found its way in the stone floor.

Nickar stepped up to it and took it in, until he could finally hear the word in his head. He then turned back to Arngeir.

Arngeir turned to the greybeard that had just demonstrated dah, "Master Wulfgar will grant you his understanding of dah."

Nickar turned to Wulfgar as the energy flowed from the Greybeard to himself. When it was done Arngeir spoke up, "It is now time for us to formally recognize you as Dragonborn."

All the Greybeards then took their place, each of them stood at a corner of the diamond shape in the floor. Nickar wasn't exactly sure what to do.

"Come Dragonborn, we would speak to you. Come and stand between us, but prepare yourself, for few can stand the unbridled voice of the Greybeards."

Nickar obliged and stood between them as all four looked and nodded to each other. When they finally spoke it was the loudest thing Nickar had ever heard. Their voices all together sounded like it did when they first summoned him to High Hrothgar.

They were most likely speaking in the dragon tongue, considering the ground was shaking and Nickar couldn't understand a word of it. He found it hard to keep his balance at times when the ground would shake. The voices were loud but he found that he could take it.

When they had finished their chant or ritual Arngeir bowed his head, "Dovahkiin, welcome. You have passed all the trials, tasted our voice, and passed through unscathed. High Hrothgar is open to you."

The Greybeards began to disperse, for their job was done, for noe. Though before Arngeir could leave, Nickar stopped him. "When you were shouting at me what were you really saying?"

Arngeir chuckled, "I sometimes forget that you are not versed in the Dragon tongue as we are. Well this is a rough translation. 'Long has the Stormcrown languished with no worthy brow to sit upon. By our breath we bestow it now to you in the name of Kyne, in the name of Shor, and in the name of Atmora of Old. You are Ysmir now, the Dragon of the North, hearken to it.' But that is only a rough translation.

Nickar didn't understand. He was Ysmir now? Old Nord legends told of the ancient Nordic King Ysmir Wulfharth who supposedly lived three different times, but Nickar didn't understand the association.

Arngeir sensed this, "The same words were used by the Greybeards when they greeted the young Talos before he became the emperor Tiber Septim. The spirit of Ysmir, the Dragon of the North lives on through all Dragonborn."

Nickar nodded in understanding.

"Is there anything else you wish to ask, Dragonborn?"

Nickar thought back to the resurrection of the dragon and how an old blade veteran had helped him. He decided not to mention that someone else was guiding him as a Dragonborn.

"No master, I understand."

Arngeir nodded, "Breath and Focus."

Whiterun; the next morning-

Nickar arrived back in Whiterun a little bit before noon. He was happy to be back, Whiterun just seemed to have an energy that Nickar loved. Maybe it was just the almost pure innocence of the town, or maybe the neutrality in the war. Though he would much sooner raise a blade in the name of the Stormcloaks than the legion and its crumbling empire, he did his best to avoid the war. Whiterun provided the shelter from the war, well at least to him, only the Gods knew what stress the jarl constantly faced with the threat of both sides on his doorstep.

After checking in on Lydia and seeing she had made it back to his house safely, he dropped off all his unwanted gear their and began to walk around the city. Of course, it was all procrastination to what he was about to do. He was going to join up with the Companions of Joorvaskr. Niro, yet again, was right.

As much as Nickar hated to admit this, it was overall a good thing. He might get to spend some time in the field with Niro; the last time they had fought alongside each other was five years ago when the Thalmor smashed the Keepers of Hattu's base of operations in Hammarfell. Plus, getting to know some shield siblings wouldn't be a bad thing, even though Nickar worked better and spent most of his time alone. Lastly, the extra coin wouldn't hurt either.

Once Nickar reached the front steps to Joorvaskr, he took a moment to look at the building's design. It was impressive; some say that Joorvaskr was made from one of the boats that sailed across the Sea of Ghosts during the return, and the great city was built around it. He walked up to the doors and took a deep breath before entering.

Upon entering he was treated to the sweet smell of warm mead and a fresh feast. He quickly turned his attention to the left side of the dining hall to see a handful of Companions crowded around two others who were engaged in a fistfight.

Nickar quickly ran up to the crowd to see how the fight would go down. One of the fighters was a woman, Nord by the look of her. She was dressed in armor made from deer skins, and atop her head was a hide helmet with metal studs running down the back. She had two small orange strikes of war paint on each cheek.

The other fighter was a man with grey skin. He was a Dark Elf; he had dark brown hair that made a raised ponytail in the back. He had strands of white war paint on his face. He wore the same armor as his opponent.

The crowd cheered as each threw and landed punches on each other.

"Come on, keep those hands up!"

"Get her Athis!"

"Kick his ass Njada!"

The elf delivered an uppercut to the woman which knocked her back and put some distance between them. The elf stood braced with his fists raised, but nothing could prepare him for what was to come.

The Nord woman regained her composure and began to angrily groan; she then quickly charged Athis and tackled him over a small table knocking it over along with a platter of meat. She then pinned her elven opponent to the ground and began delivering punches to his face until he gave in and lost the brawl.

The crowd's cheers rose when Njada rose up victorious. They showed their sympathy as Athis got up looking badly beaten up. The companions began giving and taking coin purses, they must have been taking bets on the fight.

Nickar looked around; no one seemed to recognize him as the man they had saved about a week ago. He supposed that was alright, there was no telling how many people came in and out of here. The strange thing was Niro was nowhere to be found. He must have been on a job or something.

Nickar asked an old maid where he could find the old Harbinger, Kodlak Whitemane. The maid directed him down into Joorvaskr's living quarters and down the hall. The living quarters were in a stone basement, but it was still perfectly clean and livable. It was decorated with red carpets and tables full of food and drink.

Nickar reached the end of the hall and the Harbinger's room. Though, before he opened the wooden double doors, he heard voices from behind them.

"But the blood calls master." Nickar didn't recognize the voice. However he recognized the next voice as Kodlak's

"It is our curse to bear, and most importantly to overcome."

"You have my brother and I of course, but I don't know of Aela and Niro." said the first voice. Nickar guessed that it was Vilkas, Farkas's brother. He thought back to when he first met Farkas and how he had mentioned he had a brother.

"Let me handle that." said Kodlak.

When Nickar was sure that their exchange was over he pushed open the doors and walked in to the room to find Kodlak and another companion, whom he guessed was Vilkas, both sitting at a table enjoying a bottle of mead.

Vilkas didn't seem to know who he was, but Kodlak almost immediately recognized him. "Ah it's good to see a returning face. Niro will be glad to see you."

"This the one from the giant attack?" asked Vilkas.

Nickar nodded, "That'd be me. I wish to join the Companions."

**End of Act 1**

Authors Notes: Hey y'all, that pretty much wraps it up for act 1 of this story. If anyone found act one not very exiting I apologize. But just like act one in Skyrim (the game), it's really just to get you settled in before you run off on a life of adventure and discovery. Act two will be much better because it will include things like, werewolves, drunken adventures, forsworn, and overall the Thalmor getting their skinny elven asses handed to them. So look out, and please… **LEAVE A REVIEW THAT TALKS ABOUT WHY YOU LIKE OR DISLIKE THIS STORY!** That's it, peace y'all.


	13. Chapter 13

**Caution Sexual Content: Mature Teens Only**

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog."- Mark Twain

The Story of the Dragonborn 13- Rite of Passage

Both Kodlak and Vilkas sat silently in their chairs, as they took in in what the familiar newcomer had just proposed. Finally, after a moment of silence, Kodlak responded.

"Good, I was hoping you would come back; Niro speaks quite highly of you." He then turned to Vilkas, who looked similar to his brother other than the fact that he was a bit thinner, cleaner, and his hair was a bit more kempt than Farkas's.

His armor was the same as Kodlak's, gray and appeared to be made of steel. A simple steel sword hung in his sheath, only the sword wasn't mediocre at all. It, along with all other weapons and armor used by the Companions, had been forged in the fires of the Skyforge, the forge that had resided in Skyrim before men and Elves alike.

"So what do you say, Vilkas. I think you owe Niro a drink." Kodlak joked.

Vilkas scoffed, "Master, despite brother Niro's words about this outsider, we've never heard of him."

Kodlak frowned, "You don't trust Niro's word?"

Vilkas sighed, "It's no secret that Niro has been known to…exaggerate, but look at him." He pointed to the silent Nickar, "You can't honestly be considering this… well… runt of a Nord!"

The words hit Nickar like a blade in the gut. He had mostly learned to ignore insults about his small size and instead prove himself more through actions than appearances, but those last words from Vilkas boiled his blood and unleashed a rage he would normally only experience when fighting the Thalmor.

As if almost with the flick of his wrist Nickar drew his sword and brought the tip to Vilkas's throat before anyone had a chance to flinch.

Vilkas looked up into the enraged man's eyes. The normally gentle greenish-brown eyes were staring harshly into his own. Vilkas almost felt as if his soul was being stared into submission.

Kodlak seemed to be completely calm with the situation, for he knew at that moment he was in the presence of a true Nord. He could already tell that he was strong and heavy hearted, a bit quick to anger, but so was he as a young lad.

Vilkas slowly brought his hands up in defense, "No offense." Only after finishing his soul stare did Nickar allow Vilkas to slowly push the blade away. He then broke off his stare and slid his blade back into its sheath. After a moment of awkward silence Kodlak spoke.

"Sometimes the famous come to us, sometimes those come to us seeking their fame." It matters not, but what does matter is their heart."

"And their arm." added Vilkas.

Kodlak chuckled, "I think we've already witnessed his skill with a blade."

Vilkas almost laughed, "You can't honestly take that seriously."

Kodlak sighed, "Nevertheless, you must be tested."

Nickar nodded and spoke for the first time, "Fair enough."

Kodlak then turned his gaze to Vilkas, "Vilkas, go see what he can do."

Vilkas sighed, "Aye." He then turned to Nickar, "Meet me in the training yard out back in ten minutes."

Nickar nodded, "I'll be there."

Vilkas started to say something but then began to look at something behind Nickar, "Looks like you have a shadow already."

Nickar turned to find Ria, the Imperial woman he had saved during the fight against the giant peeking at them from behind a wall. As soon as she realized she had been seen she quickly disappeared.

Nickar just waved the situation off, while Vilkas called for Farkas. Soon, the sound of steel boots hitting the stone ground echoed through the hall. Farkas then revealed himself in the doorway, "Did you call me?"

Vilkas stood up, "Yes brother, will you show this newcomer to where the other whelps stay."

Nickar took off his helmet revealing his familiar face to Farkas who then recognized him, "Oh yeah I remember you, come on I'll show you around." Nickar liked Farkas. He didn't exactly know why, but there was just something about him that Nickar thought he could trust.

The two warriors walked down the hall together.

When Nickar made no attempt at conversation Farkas began to talk. "Hope my brother didn't make you mad. He can be critical, but he's a good man."

Nickar lightly laughed, "Don't worry I wouldn't be here if I couldn't handle a few sour tongues."

Farkas grinned, "Good, and I've seen you fight. You'll fit in well here." He then led Nickar into the bed chambers for the whelp members of the Companions. The room's walls were lined with single beds, bedside tables, and chests for personal belongings. Members of the companions looked to Nickar and Farkas when they saw a newcomer approach.

"This is where you'll be staying, just pick a bed and fall in it when you're tired. Tilma, our maid will keep the place clean, she always has."

Nickar nodded, "Alright."

Farkas sighed, "I'll let you get settled in, and I'll let Niro know you're here and you're heading for the training yard."

"Thanks" said Nickar as he sat down on a bed. He spent the next few minutes getting to know some of the companions. Most seemed pretty welcoming, and Ria especially was happy to see him join up. The only one who didn't seem to like the idea of him joining was Njada, the same woman who won the brawl against the Dark Elf, Athis. Nickar just waved her and her aggressive personality off.

The city of Whiterun was built on the foundation of Nordic encampments when Ysgramor led the 500 Companions during the Return. The city was built around Joorvaskr, one of the boats that sailed across the Sea of Ghosts that would eventually become the Companions mead hall. Both the Nord's encampments and Joorvaskr were built around a magical place, the ancient Skyforge.

The Skyforge, according to legend, had existed far before men and elves alike. For this reason, the long extinct Snow Elves feared it and kept their distance. The ancient Nords however, embraced it, and to this day the Skyforge forges the best steel in all of Tamriel.

The Underforge was located right beneath the forge, and had always been as sacred as the forge itself. So it made little sense why two lovers who were also members of the Companions were joining themselves in the middle of it.

Niro found it hard not to nervously chuckle as his wife's naked body sat over him. Some would find her wolfish grin a bit unsettling, especially if you asked one of the city guards. He grabbed her waist as Aela leaned over him.

"Why so serious? I know you're anything but collected about this."

Niro smiled, "Can you blame me?"

She returned the jest and began lightly nibbling on her husband's ear. He exhaled and began to kiss at her neck. She almost immediately pinned his back to the stone ground.

"We agreed it was my turn."

Niro seductively grinned, "I make my own rules."

Aela made a sarcastically impressed face, "Where's this guy been?"

Niro then quickly sat up and brought his lips to hers. They broke off after a few slow seconds. "Definitely not in the company of my dick-tator." He smiled at his play of words.

It obviously worked since Aela then aggressively pulled him in for another kiss. A muffled groan could be heard from Niro as he was almost drowning in his wife. Aela then quickly broke off and went for something else. That was one reason why Niro loved her, she was so quick, as is life in Skyrim.

The huntress began to quickly untie the rope holding his loincloth in place, undoing the knot with intoxicating coordination. Though before either of them could continue, they were interrupted.

Farkas entered the Underforge, "Hey Niro, you're friend's HEEERE!" Farkas was so dumbly shocked he couldn't look away.

Aela leapt like a mad animal behind the basin in the center while Niro quickly brought his hand to his loincloth so it wouldn't slip off."

Farkas awkwardly scratched his head, "Umm."

Niro tied his loincloth back, "Gods, don't you know how to knock post-brain?!"

Aela sighed, "Yes Farkas, what is it?"

Farkas thoughtfully scratched his chin; the image his silver moonlike eyes had just witnessed had been burnt into his brain and couldn't be taken out. "Oh yeah." He turned his eyes to Niro, "Nickar is here, and he's getting ready to test his arm against Vilkas."

Niro stopped dead in his tracks, "Nickar actually came back; that's a relief, I thought I was wrong for once."

He let out a disappointed sigh when no one laughed, "We'll be out soon."

Farkas nodded, "Right."

As he was walking out Aela spoke up, "Farkas"

He stopped, but didn't turn his back. "Yeah."

"Can you toss me my clothes?" Farkas looked to find her armor and underclothes laying disarray on the ground next to his feet. He picked them up and lightly tossed it back, never turning back to look."

"Thanks" was all she said. Farkas started for the exit again

"And Farkas?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't tell anyone, I know."

Nickar stood in the training yard with his back leaned against the city wall. The test of his sword arm was supposed to be a quick and private matter, but all the companions were gathering to in the yard to watch. He didn't like this, large groups made him nervous, he was in general a very private and closed person.

He finally saw Niro for the first time since he had come back. He came from somewhere around the forge along with that huntress, Aela.

Niro gave him a reassuring nod as he walked to join the growing audience. Nickar returned the jest, though he noticed something a bit odd. Niro and Aela were walking very close together, their hands were almost touching. Honestly, he wouldn't be surprised if Niro was doing her. Back in the day, before the Thalmor smashed the Keepers of Hattu 6 years ago, Niro bedded a lot of women in Hammarfell, especially the female members of the Keepers.

Nickar's mind was snapped to attention when he saw Vilkas approaching him. He to seemed a bit uncomfortable that everyone was watching this. Nickar got off the wall and headed to join Vilkas in the middle of the yard.

Vilkas sighed, "Alright, let's test that arm of yours, and don't worry, I can take it."

Nickar nodded and drew his sword. Vilkas did the same.

Nickar lunged forward and slashed down with his sword. Vilkas was caught off guard by the force behind the thrust. He could already tell that he had underestimated this small Nord.

He recovered and made a swing of his own. Nickar parried as if he could see a few seconds into the future.

Vilkas attempted to disarm him by twisting his blade and Nickar's in a circle, but Nickar simply pulled his blade back and struck Vilkas upon his armor covered shoulder

The audience gasped, for a recruit had just bested a member of the Circle. Vilkas ran his hand over the area where Nickar's sword had struck, there was a bit of a dent, but nothing bad.

Nickar was having trouble coming to terms at what was going on with him. Ever since he'd arrived in Skyrim everything about him seemed to be different. His potential and skill in battle had shown like it had been there all along. He wasn't at all complaining, but Nickar naturally had a dislike for things he couldn't understand.

The sound of Vilkas's voice snapped him out of his thought, "Not bad, but you're still just a whelp to us."

Nickar nodded, "Whatever."

Vilkas frowned and took the blade of his sword which he gave to Nickar hilt extended, "Go take my sword to old Eorlund Gray-Mane up at the Skyforge, and be careful with it. It's probably worth more than."

Nickar chuckled, "Hmph, very funny." He then took the sword and began walking to the Skyforge.

The crowd of Companions dispersed and went about their business. Niro walked up to Vilkas, "Told you so." His tone was playful, almost childish. He put his hand on Vilkas's armored shoulder, "You owe me a drink bud."

Vilkas said nothing as he watched Nickar walk up the steps to the Skyforge. Niro laughed and left Vilkas.

Nickar marveled as he approached the ancient Skyforge, it was magnificent. Its magic was one of the few that Nords accepted due to its potential to make the finest steel in Tamriel. What really caught Nickar's attention was the large stone statue of an eagle with his wings spread out.

Nickar walked over to Eorlund Gray-Mane, an old man with whitebeard that covered most of his face, and head for that matter. He was currently banging a hammer on a blade upon an anvil.

When he saw Nickar approach he gave a nod, "So you're the new recruit, and I see Niro got that armor I crafted to you."

Nickar looked down at the light studded armor, "Yeah and thanks, it's served me well."

Eorlund placed the hot blade in some water to cool it off, "So are you here for conversation, cause I ain't much for talking."

Nickar chuckled, "That's alright; I ain't either. I just brought you Vilkas's sword, he wants it repaired."

Eorlund took the sword, "Thank you, I'll get to that."

Nickar nodded, "Right, good to meet you."

Before Nickar could turn to leave Eorlund stopped him, "Before you go, a word of advice. Nobody's anyone's master in the Companions, so don't feel like you have to run everyone's meager errands for them. They don't like to admit it, but they were all whelps once."

Nickar nodded, "Thanks."

"Oh that reminds me! Can you take this shield to Aela; she's been waiting on it for a while now." He passed him a small iron shield. It was very light, perfect for a huntress.

Nickar found it a bit odd that this master blacksmith was asking him to run an errand for him despite the advice he had just given him. Nevertheless he obliged and took the shield to Aela in her own quarters.

Nickar's suspicions of Niro and her having some sort of relationship increased when he found Niro in the room with Aela. Or, of course, they may have just been talking.

Aela was grateful when Nickar gave her the new shield. She commented on his practice with Vilkas in the yard, "Looked like you gave him quite the thrashing." she said.

Niro agreed, "Yeah, good work bud."

"Do you think you could handle Vilkas in a real fight?" asked Aela.

Nickar shrugged, "I don't really boast."

She smiled, "A man of action, good."

Finally, Niro asked the question he had been dying to know the answer to since Nickar left for High Hrothgar, "So are you Dragonborn or not?"

Aela widened her eyes at the question. Nickar rubbed the back of his neck, "That's what the Greybeards said."

Niro laughed, "So you got the gift, what're you supposed to do with it?"

"Man I don't know, I guess I'm just waiting for a sign."

Aela cut in, "We'll talk about this later, I have a job that I think will be appropriate as your right of passage."

Nickar smiled at the attractive woman, "What am I doing?"

"Go ask Farkas, he'll be your shield-brother, and he'll fill you in on everything."

Nickar nodded, "Thanks." He then turned to Niro, "I'll get us some drinks when I get back."

Niro laughed, "Hell yeah!"

Nickar chuckled and left the room leaving the two alone.

Niro laughed under his breath, "I still haven't told him we're married."

Aela put on a sly smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck, "Farkas will tell him. Now I think we have some unfinished business to take care of."

Before Niro could say or do anything, Aela quickly tore off the chest piece of his armor and forced him down on the bed as she climbed on top of him.

Whiterun plains-

Nickar and Farkas walled down the western road. They were heading to Dustman's Cairn to recover a fragment of Wuuthrad, the ancient battle-axe wielded by Ysgramor himself during the Return, when the Nords returned to Skyrim to punish the snow elves for their treachery. Wuuthrad was translated to mean, 'elf grinder.'

Apparently some scholar had informed the Companions of this fragment of Wuuthrad, and Nickar's proving would depend on its recovery. Farkas was there as his shield-brother, he was to watch the new recruit's back, but mostly just observe.

They were walking down the road when Farkas pointed to a tomb placed in the ground on a small hill, "This it is."

Nickar followed him to the entrance, and Farkas put his large hand on the doors. "You ready?" he asked.

Nickar nodded and much to Farkas's surprise kicked the doors to the crypt open and quickly proceeded in. Farkas followed, doing his best to keep up with him.

"Hey be careful, I don't want to have to haul you back to Joorvaskr on my back… again."

Nickar chuckled, "No worries."

They both stopped dead in their tracks when they reached the first chamber. Dead draugr littered the ground with their weapons scattered like fallen branches, and one of metal basins that held the room lighting fire had been knocked over. The scorched rocks were spilled on the ground.

Nickar looked around, "We ain't alone."

Farkas nodded, "Looks like someone's been digging here; tread lightly. They continued deeper into the crypt, not running into any trouble from any draugr, and the 'diggers' were nowhere to be found.

They eventually reached some sort of large circular chamber. "Let's take a look around here." said Farkas

Nickar nodded in agreement and the two began to look around for anything that stood out or might help them. Nickar turned his gaze onto a lever behind an already raised gate. Out of curiosity he went over to it and pulled it. The gate behind him then closed with no way for him to get out. He tried to pull it back to re-open the gate.

His blood boiled when he found it was jammed. "Gods damn it!" he tried to kick the lever back into place, it was unsuccessful. Outside he could hear Farkas's dumb laughter.

"Now look what you've got yourself into."

Nickar sighed as he gripped the gate's bars, "Just get me out of here."

Farkas laughed, "Just sit tight."

The sound of armored footstep echoing through the ruin caught their attention. Six warriors ran from a passage into the chamber and began to surround Farkas with in half circle. The group was armed with silver tipped weapons and all kinds of armor.

Farkas quickly took his large claymore in both hands and turned to face the over-whelming enemy. "Ha we knew you'd be coming, your mistake. Companion." said a male elf.

"Which one is that?" asked a woman who was wearing the sluttiest armor Nickar had ever seen.

"It doesn't matter!" said a male Orc. "He wears that armor, so he dies." The group began to close in on him.

"Yes killing you will make for an excellent story." said the warrior slut.

At this point, Nickar thought he might be able to get out by shouting the gate open. The only problem was, it might hurt or maybe kill Farkas. Though before he could come to a decision, Farkas stood tall and walked closer to the surrounding warriors.

When everyone else had been expecting a last stand from Farkas he did something that shocked Nickar and amused these warriors. He took his claymore in one hand and threw it to the ground in front of him. There was a large bang when the heavy blade hit the stone ground. The warriors all laughed. Nickar was worried Farkas was surrendering.

"None of you will be alive to tell it." he said in his deep dumb voice. It was then that his muscles began to expand and pull out of his body. His head began to take a whole other form along with the rest of his body.

Only a couple of seconds ago, it had been Farkas standing there, but now in the same spot was a large wolf. A werewolf. The beast let out a large monstrous roar.

"Kill it! yelled the Orc. Three warriors on the left charged, but with just one swing of a claw they all went flying into the wall and came down broken. The warriors on the right did the same thing, only the Orc and the slut slid to the ground avoiding the beast's swipe. The one who didn't duck suffered the same fate as the group on the left.

The warrior slut lashed out with her axe but was only knocked away and hit the wall. A snap could be heard from her broken back. The last remaining warrior, the Orc tried to run. The wolf pounced on him him and sat over its trapped prey. It then repeatedly swiped its large sharp claws onto its prey's body. Blood spilled everywhere each time a claw tore through flesh. When the corpse was little more than a group of discarded body parts, the wolf got up on two legs and ran into the passage where the warriors came from.

A few minutes later the gate holding Nickar imprisoned opened and Farkas came running back into the chamber like nothing had happened.

"I hope I didn't scare you." he said.

Nickar kept his distance, "You're a werewolf. How?"

Farkas sighed, "It's just a blessing given to members of the Circle. We can take the form of beasts and claim the strength and speed of one."

Nickar pointed to the corpses, "Who were they?"

"The Silver-hand, they're werewolf hunters. We thought we had scared them into leaving us alone." He took a minute to look around at his work, "Guess not."

Nickar raised his sword pointing to the passage, "Let's go, we still got the fragment to worry about."

They continued through the ruin, running into draugr and a few traps. They saw no more of the Silver-hand though. Both Nickar and Farkas thought that there would be more waiting for them.

They reached a doorway that was blocked by a think web. Nickar grunted, "Great, this again." He drew his sword to cut the web. Farkas did the same with his claymore.

Farkas stepped into the room first, only to get surprised attack by a spider the size of his chest. Nickar went in after him and stabbed his sword into a spider crawling low on the ground.

The spider that had attack Farkas was trying to bite past his armor. Farkas ripped it off and desperately hacked at it with his large sword like he was afraid of it. When a small one threatened to climb up his leg he desperately kicked it off with a yelp and stomped on it.

Ahead of him Nickar backed up and almost hid behind his shield when a much larger spider came out of its hole in the wall. It stabbed its its fangs at Nickar but couldn't get past the hard shield.

Nickar staggered, "Can I get some help here?!"

Farkas, in all honesty, was terrified of spiders. However, he didn't want to embarrass the Companions with his fear so he charged into the fray. Nickar swung at one of the spider's hairy legs, but the leg itself lashed out, and disarmed him if his sword.

Farkas swung downwards and cut into the spider's side. The spider screeched in pain as it turned to Farkas. Its thick legs knocked him down to the ground along with his sword. Nickar took the opportunity to attack, "Fus Ro Dah!"

The fully powered shout pushed the huge spider across the room and to a wall. The thundering boom of the shout's power echoed through the ruin. Nickar hoped he hadn't woken up every damn thing in this godsforsaken crypt.

The spider recovered quickly and went for the recovering Farkas again. Nickar quickly rolled under the spider and stabbed it in its stomach. It screeched pain, its guts began to spill from the wound, and before Nickar knew it he was covered in the green internals of the spider.

The stab must have been placed perfectly because the spider fell, on top of Nickar. As Farkas got up he heard a muffled sound coming from the spider. He shuddered as he lifted the huge spider off his shield-brother.

"Thanks" said Nickar in a hoarse voice.

He was covered in green slime; it would have made a milk drinker throw up if they saw it.

"Stendarr's mercy this stuff stinks!"

Farkas chuckled, "If you think that's gross…" his voice trailed off.

Nickar stood trying his best to clean himself off, and waited for Farkas to finish.

"I walked in on Niro and Aela."

Nickar chuckled, "I thought they might be sleeping together."

Farkas looked a little confused, "Well yeah… they're married."

Nickar completely froze at the statement, "They're married?!"

Farkas laughed, "You mean you didn't know?"

Nickar didn't know what surprised him more, the fact that this wasn't the first thing that came out of Niro's mouth when they were first reunited, or the fact that Niro had settled down. But he definitely landed a good one; Aela was one of the most attractive women Nickar had ever seen.

"No! That asshole sure kept a closed mouth about it."

After a few minutes they finally reached the main chamber. They both saw the fragment they were looking for on an offering table at the far end of the chamber. They proceeded carefully, for the entire chamber was lined with black metal coffins. They were all closed, but they both knew what was in them.

When they both reached the offering table neither of them went to grab the blade piece of the ancient elf grinder.

"It's your proving shield brother." said Farkas.

Nickar nodded and took the blade piece. Almost immediately they heard the sounds of metal slabs hitting stone. They both drew their weapons and found at least a dozen draugr emerging from their coffins.

A draugr charged for the two, but Farkas swung down with his huge bastard sword completely cutting through the dead body. "You see a way out?" he asked.

Nickar quickly scanned the room around them, "No! We'll have to fight our way out!"

Farkas grinned, "No problems there!" He then completely smashed another charging draugr.

Many more came for him, more than he could handle. "Iis Slen Nus!"

Farkas stood ready to kill every one of the charging undead, but he found he wouldn't have to for they all stood frozen like statues, all encased in a thick layer of ice.

Farkas looked to Nickar shocked. Nickar then ran to stab a draugr attacking Farkas from behind. He stood with his back against Farkas's, "We're in this together!"

Farkas grunted in agreement and swung his claymore to the side cutting a draugr in half. Another draugr charged only to be bashed by Nickar's shield and chopped up by Farkas's claymore.

The two shield-brothers fought and layed the cursed dead back to rest, to Sovnguard if Shor found them worthy. They had almost finished their work when a final coffin opened to reveal a large Draugr. This draugr was clad in black armor and wore a helmet with two horns the length of short swords. It wielded a battle-axe made of pure ebony.

Nickar went to charge this dangerous looking draugr while Farkas went to finish off the last of the other draugr. Nickar was only five feet away when this large draugr shouted, "Zun!" Nickar suddenly realized that he had lost grip of his sword.

The draugr then swung down with its large axe knocking Nickar's shield away. It then swung quickly to the side, Nickar jumped back and dodged. The draugr went to swing again but was cut off by Farkas's large claymore. The draugr staggered greatly but its armor was so thick there was hardly any damage.

The draugr retaliated and swung; Farkas blocked but was knocked back by the heavy axe. Nickar quickly retrieved his sword and drove it into the distracted draugr's dead heart. This was more of an annoyance than a wound, for it grabbed the blade and pulled it deeper to pull Nickar closer. It then put its dead and shriveled hand around his neck.

"Oh…shit!" said Nickar under a choking breath.

The draugr seemed to be laughing, though it wasn't really a sound that anyone would associate with merriment. This laughter was cut short when Farkas drove his blade into the draugr's back.

It dropped its axe and Nickar to the ground. Farkas raised his sword to finish it off but the draugr drove its head back into Farkas's core causing him to stagger. This seemingly invincible draugr was about to get up when Nickar tackled it, removed its helmet and plunged his dagger into one of its glowing eyes until the other one went out.

Nickar stood up and held still for a moment to regain his composure. He then walked over to Farkas to help him to his feet.

"Thanks" grunted Farkas.

"Don't mention it."

Farkas nodded, "Speaking of that… best if you didn't mention to anyone that the Circle are werewolves."

Nickar chuckled, "Don't worry I ain't much for talking anyway."

Farkas smiled as he slid his claymore onto his back, "Good, now let's go, we've got an initiation to get to."

Author's Notes: Hey y'all, long time no see. I was out of town for two weeks so I couldn't upload any new chapters. Unfortunately I start school next week, so there will be even fewer chapters :(. I'll do my best. I changed the name of the story because the first name was boring. **PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW!**


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